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1142^-1144 Broadwty 

(Cor. 26fh Street) 
NEW YORK 



RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO 

president Sfyeodore Roosevelt, 



The Sweetest Thing in all the world ? 

Its Name is HAPPINESS ! 
This little book will help the reader find it. 










l/ersus 

6\)e Simple Cife. 



BY 



l^ouis Paul. 



PUBLISHED BY 
HEINK & CO. 
1142^-1144 BROADWAY, 
NEW YORK, 



1 1 A grand little book 
clearly demo?istrating 
in Jive chapters 
the actual essentials for a 
happy life ; 
a precious bundle oj 
valuable suggestions 
showing how to attain 
the greatest possible amount 
of happiness undet all 
circumstances and at all 
times. ' ' . 



Ms 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
fwo Copies deceived 

JUN 14 S905 

wownciu Lull? 
uLftSS CL XXc. Noj 

copy e. 



Copyright, 1905, 

BY 

F. I,. P. HEINK. 



Zo 

Zhcobovc IRoosevelt 

WHO AS MAN AND RUIyER, 

IN WORD, IN DEED 

AND IN TRUTH 

IS AN ILLUSTRIOUS EXAMPLE 

OF ONE OE THE HIGHEST TYPES OF CIVILIZATION 

OF OUR CENTURY, — 

Gbts Booft 10 IReepectfulty 
Defcicatefc, 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction , 9 

Preface 12 

Poem of William J. Lampton 14 

What do you Live For 16 

Poem ' ' The Wants of Man ' ' — by John Quincy 

Adams 19 

CONTENTS OF FIRST CHAPTER : 
Sound Heai/th For The Body. 
Through Education This Subject Should Receive 

Closest Attention 29 

The Stomach the Mainspring of life and Happiness 30 

Temperance in Eating and Drinking 31 

Instinct : the Voice of The Creator 32 

Diseases Caused by Immoderate Eating and Drink- 
ing 34 

Breaking Down of System Caused by Over-indul- 
gence 35 

How to Eat 36 

The Physician's L Help and Value 38 

Longevity; Exercise; Blood-Circulation 40 

Importance of Fresh Air and Sunlight 43 

The Delightful Benefits of the Daily Bath 44 

Overwork; Rest-; Sleep 47 

5 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Relation and Influence of Body on Mind 48 

CONTENTS OF SECOND CHAPTER: 

Sound Heai/th For The Mind. 

Virtues Bring Contentment ; Crime Caused by 

Mental Diseases , 50 

Mental Disturbance Causing Diseases of Body 52 

Necessity of Proper Exercise of Mind as of Body 54 

Dangers of Abnormal Development 55 

How to Retain Sound Mind to Old Age 57 

Danger of Overtaxing the Mind of the Young 59 

The Mind a Store-House of Knowledge 61 

Beauty Dependent on Health of Mind as of Body . 

63 



} 



The Science of Physiognomy 

Influence of Music on Mind and Body 64 

Influence of Mind upon Mind 65 

The Well-Trained Mind an Aid to Happiness 66 

CONTENTS OF THIRD CHAPTER : 
Successful Business-Principles. 

Choice of Business or Profession 68 

The Knowledge of What Creates Real and pasting 

Happiness 71 

" Fair Exchange is no Robbery " 72 

The Foundation-Principle of Civilization versus 

Barbarism f 74 

Money, and its Influence on Happiness 78 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Labor-Unions, their Benefits and Dangers 81 

Superior Business-Standards are Result of Superior 

Education 83 

Difficulties Between Labor and Capital ; Solutions 

Suggested 84 

Presid't. Roosevelt on " Ideals in Business-Life "... 86 
Lack and Excess of Ambition equally Disastrous to 

Happiness 88 

Rules of the Great Banker Rothschild 90 

The Miser and the Spendthrift 91 

Another Business-man's business-principles 92 

CONTENTS OF FOURTH CHAPTER : 
Sound Religious Principles. 
Happiness Increased by Sound Religious Principles; 

and vice versa 95 

The Light of Wisdom is Dawning Gradually 98 

What is the Value of Beliefs 100 

Statistics of the World's Various Religions 104 

List of Various Christian Sects and Denominationsl05 

Is There a God? 110 

Whence the Wind Cometh From and Whereto it 

Goeth,— Who Knoweth ? 115 

What do we Know About Him ? 116 

Is The Bible infallible? 118 

What are His Laws and What is our Destiny ? 121 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CONTENTS OF FIFTH CHAPTER : 

Essentials for Happiness Regarding Social 

Life And The Home. 
What is Love? 131 

The Savage Barbarian and the Civilized Christian.. 133 

The Evolution of Dicipline Conducive to Greater 

Happiness , 136 

The Knowledge of Human Nature 138 

Humanity Struggling between Barbarism and the 

Millenium , 141 

Children are Little Savages 142 

The Pretended Nobility in Animals not Based on factl43 

' Give Me Liberty or Give me — Death ' 145 

Extracts from Address of President Roosevelt on 

Family-Life 146 

Love the Keynote to Happiness in the Home as in 

Social Intercourse 149 

Happy and Unhappy Marriages ; Cause and Effect... 151 
' The Price of Wheat Controls the Marriage-Market. 153 

The Story of the Bird in the Gilded Cage....... 154 

Excessive Ambition a Hindrance to Happiness...... 156 

President Lincoln's Favorite Poem 158 

A Word About the So-Called ' Upstarts, ! .< The 

Nouveaux Riches ' 161 

The Table of Benj. Franklin's Life and Home Rule 163 
The Author Bids the Reader: God-speed 164 



INTRODUCTION. 



An old German proverb, in the English trans- 
lation, has this to say : 

"To be content — is quite an art; 
To seem content, a joyless part; 
To get content — luck, if you please; 
To stay content, the masterpiece/' 

As the above lines may be applied with equal pro- 
priety to the condition of happiness as to content- 
ment, we are perhaps justified in quoting them in 
this connection. And were it not for the fact that 
we meet, alas ! so many people who do not seem 
to possess happiness, though everybody wants it 
and though thousands upon thousands are inces- 
santly laboring to secure it — it might be unnecessary 
to call attention to the following very obvious truth, 
namely : that our success in reaching a certain place 
does not depend so much on the rapidity in which 
we travel, or upon the strenuous efforts we put for- 
ward to get there, but on another much more 
important item. Our success depends first of all — 
and the non-observance of this fact, very evident 
though it may be, is undoubtedly the reason why 
so few do ever reach happiness — depends first of 



10 INTRODUCTION. 



all on this : "that we must be on the right road lead- 
ing there/' Do not blindly follow the ignorant 
masses ! Reflect, be wise, and before you start on 
the run, make sure you are on the right track! 
Run with all your might in the wrong direction 
and you are getting further and further away from 
the goal ! So much time lost in hard work when 
a little thought will save so much disappointment. 
And life being so short, the sooner in life a person 
gives a little thought to this subject so much greater 
the gain. Not only that, but remember if you are 
once finally on the right road, that you must exercise 
great care too at the cross-roads, lest you might 
yet land at a very different place than the one you 
started out to reach. Oh! how many unfortunates 
have found that out, and will yet find it out, when 
it is, I fear, "too late," when life and its opportu- 
nities are gone. Alas ! let us try to save you all dis- 
appointment about it! See, if this little book may 
not serve you as a valuable guide on your pil- 
grimage! And surely, my friend, one good turn 
deserves another. So when you realize the benefit 
you derive from this little book, will you not tell 
others about it too, and thus aid in a good and noble 
work? One of the laws for the obtaining of true 
happiness is found in the fact that next to making 
ourselves happy, the greatest happiness is obtained 
by making others happy, for: "Divided sorrow is 



INTRODUCTION. 11 



half the sorrow; divided joy is doubly the joy." 
If you feel like writing to the author a few words 
in reference to this work, he will appreciate it ; and 
it may lead to better things. We want persons in 
all parts of the world to aid in spreading the knowl- 
edge contained in this book. Societies, schools, 
churches, etc., are taking up this work with much 
enthusiasm and success. All persons too who desire 
to act as agents for this book, will find it to their 
interest to communicate with the publishers. 
Address: Heink & Co., 1144 Broadway, New York. 






PREFACE. 



The Declaration of Independence of the United 
States wisely emphasizes that the pursuit of happi- 
ness is one of the inalienable rights of man. And 
indeed is not the attainment of happiness the one 
thing aimed at in all human efforts ? Knowingly or 
merely instinctively, from the cradle to the grave, are 
not all our actions undertaken directly or indirectly 
with that end in view — by the young as by the 
old — by the rich as by the poor — by the noble- 
minded as by the criminally inclined — by all and 
everybody — in all circumstances, at all times and 
in all countries of all climes — every minute and 
every day — year in and year out — throughout the 
centuries that are past, and the centuries that are 
to come — and indeed throughout the world's en- 
tire history of the human race : namely, to pro- 
cure the attainment or continuation of happiness 
for ourselves and for others? Nay, more than 
that, could we not state frankly and truthfully that 
the degree of happiness secured for ourselves and 
others by our actions, determines their value? And 
this being so, — at once there dawns a light upon 
otherwise more or less confusing problems which is 
something of a revelation and an exceeding com- 
fort to have, and which cannot satisfactorily be 

12 



PREFACE. 13 



procured in any other way. It reduces the thou- 
sand and one problems perplexing us to the plain 
and simple rule of life : "Continue only that which 
is conducive to your and others' happiness, discon- 
tinue that which is detrimental to your and others' 
happiness." How easy, how satisfactory, and how 
comfortable and successful a guide to go by ! And 
moreover in proportion as we progress and advance 
with this blessed guide to lead us on in our pil- 
grimage through life, the greater becomes conse- 
quently our enjoyment of life, our happiness. Is 
it any wonder that men and women have time and 
time again thought about the conditions controlling 
happiness, and that consequently we find scattered 
about throughout the history of humankind writings 
on the subject, and allusions to it in the works of 
many authors? Various as the suggestions therein 
made may be, and strangely contradictory as some 
of them may seem, this circumstance may be ex- 
plained by the evident fact that many writers on 
this subject instead of disclosing those essentials 
of happiness applying to all conditions and all 
people, have rather confined themselves to the state- 
ment of merely just such factors as appeared to 
them to heighten their individual happiness. 
Thereof we have had for instance again recently 
an exceptionally interesting illustration, namely 
this coincidence, that two distinguished authors, 



14 PREFACE. 



whose works have been discussed widely, were 
advocating at almost identically the same time what 
would seem to be directly opposite views as regards 
such principles of life essential for happiness. And 
so when we had scarcely become accustomed to 
the sound of the word ''strenuous" as representing 
an advanced form of modern life, we were con- 
fronted on the other hand by an advocate of: The 
"Simple" Life, whose book has been advertised far 
and wide "most strenuously." The following little 
poem, humorously referring to this incident, is 
from the pen of William J. Lampton: 

"One day a mighty strenuous man 
Took up the 'Simple Life/ 
A little book of Wagner ways 
To quiet human strife. 

He read it in the urgent style 

That stirs him to renovn, 
And after he had picked it up, 

He wouldn't put it down. 

He boomed and boomed 'The Simple Life/ 

Wherever he was at — 
Affinity of contrast — what? 

Well, let it go at that. 



PREFACE. 15 



Whatever might have been the cause, 

Results were quite the same, 
And everybody, following him, 

Whooped up the volume's fame. 

Until gadzooks! The Simple Life/ 

As any one may see, 
To-day is representative 

Of strenuosity." 

"What is meat to one, is poison to another" is 
a well-known remark, and yet it is no doubt equally 
true, though, that all must have something to eat 
in order to live. And while the "Strenuous Life" 
may do for some, and the "Simple Life" for others, 
let us remember first of all that it is the "Happy 
Life" which everybody wants and needs; and thus 
in the following lines I am endeavoring from the 
experiences of a life-time's travel and study of 
human nature, and from perhaps exceptional oppor- 
tunities of investigation by coming in close con- 
tact with people of. various countries and of all 
conditions of life — the highest as well as the 
lowest — to emphasize those essentials upon which 
happiness seems largely dependent at all times with 
all people, no matter in what conditions and cir- 
cumstances they may find themselves. And while 
being aware that happiness is probably never de- 



16 PREFACE. 



pendent upon just one condition, but is the result 
of various causes, and while realizing that these 
conditions differ very widely with different indi- 
viduals, I have endeavored to enumerate for the 
benefit of my readers in the following lines those 
certain facts of importance in the pursuit of hap- 
piness which are evidently essential at all times 
and in all conditions, just as there are for instance 
certain observances essential which prove beneficial 
to the health of all people at all times and in all 
conditions, though it would be folly to expect one 
and the same medicine to have the same beneficial 
result in all cases of illness. The following pages 
therefore I trust will be helpful to point out to 
the painstaking reader and conscientious seeker, 
desirous of making the best of his life, that road 
to follow which will lead him successfully to the 
fullest enjoyment of this most valued object soight 
for. Hence in putting the question before each 
individual directly and plainly: 

What do you live for? 
it is not improbable that while the same would 
seem perhaps rather startling and new to some, 
others may have more or less definitely asked 
themselves the question before this and perhaps 
more than once. And, oh, what a variety of an- 
swers there might be recorded ! In reply to this 
vital question trumpeted out into the world, "What 



PREFACE. 17 



do you live for?" what a collection of scores of 
different replies we would have in return ! What 
a treasure of interesting information and keen in- 
sight into human nature and its manifold and 
complex desires these answers would afford ! 
Among these replies possibly the most frequently 
recurring ones would be: "I live primarily to 
make money for this or that purpose," as perhaps 
it is not untrue that our wants are so unlimited 
that just as soon as our income increases we are 
.ready to develop new wants which we think must 
be satisfied, and so our expenditures increase fur- 
ther and further whenever our income may in- 
crease — no matter to what extent. Consequently 
many of us probably do live and toil ever new 
just simply in order "to make money" and "to 
make more money." But this is not all-sufficient. 
Other replies would come : "To attain power/' "to 
gain prominence," "to beat my rival," "to achieve 
honor," "to have a good time," etc., etc. Presum- 
ing that these answers would be told frankly and 
truthfully, we would thus read not only the wishes 
of the noble-minded but also the wishes of those 
with criminal instincts and depraved appetites, of 
those who desire to live in order to do good, and 
of those who would delight in the destruction of 
others. We would have before us in a bunch the 
fondest wishes of the young and of the old, of the 



18 PREFACE. 



rich and of the poor, of the happy and of the mis- 
erable, of the healthy and of the sickly, of the 
strong and of the weak, of the intelligent and of 
the ignorant, of the world's great rulers and of 
the slaves and exiles, of the people of all climes, 
countries and religions, of all beings called human 
in whatever form and conditions, and of all their 
desires and intentions and wishes in life we would 
have the complete answers in reply to our ques- 
tion : What do they live for. — And however varied 
their desires and wishes might be, however dif- 
ferent and contrasting their statements might pre- 
sent themselves, it is reasonable to presume that 
in all these replies we would be able to read be- 
tween the lines everywhere more or less plainly 
this one aim, proving that all human desires and 
wishes just culminate and center in just this one 
point, namely: "We are living for the purpose of 
attaining happiness; we are engaged in the pursuit 
of it; and thus we are living with the desire to 
secure for ourselves (or for others) to the fullest 
extent possible 'A Happy Life' with the hope of 
a better life to come." — So, taking this circum- 
stance and condition as the one great a : m of hu- 
manity and as the foremost of life's objects, the 
author has in the following lines endeavored to 
help in the successful solution of this far-reaching 
and all-important, all-overshadowing problem, and 



PREFACE. 19 



has tried to work it out on the basis that the secur- 
ing of this valuable object, of this precious prize 
of life, is mainly dependent for any and every- 
body on the degree in which each and every one 
succeeds in procuring the five principal essentials^ 
herein specifically treated in five separate chapters, 
as follows: First Chapter — Sound Health for the 
Body; Second Chapter — Sound Health for the 
Mind; Third Chapter — Sensible and Successful 
Business Principles ; Fourth Chapter — Sensible 
Religious Principles Based on Facts; Fifth Chap- 
ter — Essentials for Happiness Regarding Social 
Life and The Home. 

We close this preface to "The Happy Life" by 
quoting "The Wants of Man/' the celebrated poem 
of that distinguished author John Quincy Adams, 
President of the United States from 1825 to 1829: 

THE WANTS OF MAN. 

1. "Man wants but little here below, 

Nor wants that little long." 
'Tis not with me exactly so, 

But 'tis so in the song. 
My wants are many, and, if told, 

Would muster many a score; 
And were each wish a mint of gold, 

I still should long for more. 



20 PREFACE 



What first I want is daily bread, 

And canvass-backs and wine; 
And all the realms of nature spread 

Before me, when I dine. 
Four courses scarcely can provide, 

My appetite to quell; 
With four choice cooks from France, beside, 

To dress my dinner well. 



What most I want, at princely cost, 

Is elegant attire; 
Black sable furs for winter's frost, 

And silks for summer's fire, 
And cashmere shawls, and Brussels lace, 

My bosom's front to deck, 
And diamond rings my hands to grace, 

And rubies for my neck. 



And then I want a mansion fair, 

A dwelling-house in style, 
Four stories high, for wholesome air, 

A massive marble pile; 
With halls for banquets, and for balls, 

All furnished rich and fine; 
With stabled steeds in fifty stalls, 

And cellars for my wine. 



PREFACE. 21 

I want a garden, and a park, 

My dwelling to surround, 
A thousand acres (bless the mark!) 

With walls encompassed round, 
Where flocks may range, and herds may low, 

And kids and lambkins play, 
And flowers and fruit commingl'd grow 

All Eden to display. 



6. I want, when summer's foliage falls, 

And autumn strips the trees, 
A house within the city's walls, 

For comfort and for ease — 
But here, as space is somewhat scant, 

And acres rather rare, 
My house in town, I only want, 

To occupy — a square. 



I want a steward, butler, cooks, 

A coachman, footman, grooms; 
I want a library of well-bound books, 

And picture-garnished rooms, 
Correggio's "Magdalen'* and "Night," 

"The Matron of the Chair" ; 
Cuido's fleet couriers in their flight, 

And Claudes, at least a pair. 



22 PREFACE. 

8. Ay! and, to stamp my form and face 

Upon the solid rock, 
I want, their lineaments to trace, 

Carrara's milk-white block, 
And let the chisel's art sublime, 

By Greenough's hand, display, 
Through all the range of future time, 

My features to the day. 



I want a cabinet profuse 

Of medals, coins and gems; 
A printing press, for private use, 

Of fifty thousand ems; 
And plants and minerals and shells, 

Worms, insects, fishes, birds; 
And every beast on earth that dwells 

In solitude or herds. 



10. I want a board of burnished plate, 

Of silver and of gold, 
Tureens of twenty pounds in weight, 

With sculpture's richest mold ; 
Plateaus with chandeliers and lamps, 

Plates, dishes, all the same; 
And porcelain vases, with the stamps 

Of Sevres and Angouleme. 



PREFACE. 23 



ii. And maples, of fair glossy stain, 

Must form my chamber doors ; 
And carpets, of the Wilton grain, 

Must cover all my floors; 
My walls with tapestry bedeckM, 

Must never be outdone; 
And damask curtains must protect 

Their colors from the sun. 



12. And mirrors, of the largest pane, 

From Venice must be brought; 
And sandal-wood and bamboo-cane, 

For chairs and tables bought; 
On all the mantle-pieces, clocks 

Of thrice-gilt bronze must stand, 
And screens of ebony and bone 

Invite the stranger's hand. 



13. I want — (who does not want) — a wife, 

Affectionate and fair; 
To solace all the woes of life, 

And all its joys to share. 
Of temper sweet — of yielding will, 

Of firm, yet placid mind, 
With all my faults to love me still, 

With sentiments refin'd. 



24: PREFACE. 

14. And as Time's car incessant runs, 

And fortune fills my store, 
I want of daughters and of sons 

From eight to half a score. 
I want (alas! can mortal dare 

Such bliss on earth to crave?) 
That all the girls be chaste and fair- 

The boys all wise and brave. 



15. And when my bosom's darling sings 

With melody divine, 
A pedal harp, of many strings, 

Must with her voice combine. 
A piano exquisitely wrought, 

Must open stand, apart, 
That all my daughters may be taught 

To win the stranger's heart. 



16. My wife and daughters will desire 

Refreshment from perfumes, 
Cosmetics for the skin require, 

And artificial blooms. 
The civet fragrance shall dispense, 

And treasured sweets return, 
Cologne revive the flagging sense, 

And smoking amber burn. 



PREFACE. 2& 



17. And when at night my weary head 

Begins to droop and doze, 
A southern chamber holds my bed 

For Nature's soft repose ; 
With blankets, counterpanes, and sheet, 

Mattress and bed of down, 
And comfortables for my feet, 

And pillows for my crown. 



18. I want a warm and faithful friend 

To cheer the adverse hour; 
Who ne'er to flatter will descend, 

Nor bend the knee to power — 
A friend to chide me when I'm wrong, 

My inmost soul to see; 
And that my friendship prove as strong 

For him as his for me. 



19. I want a keen, observing eye, 

An ever-listening ear, 
The truth through all disguise to spy, 

And wisdom's voice to hear; 
A tongue to speak, at virtue's need, 

In Heaven's sublimest strain; 
And lips, the cause of Man to plead, 

And never plead in vain. 



26 PREFACE. 

20. I want uninterrupted health, 

Throughout my long career ; 
And streams of never-failing wealth, 

To scatter far and near — 
The destitute to clothe and feed, 

Free bounty to bestow, 
Supply the helpless orphan's need, 

And soothe the widow's woe. 



21. I want the genius to conceive, 

The talents to unfold, 
Designs, the vicious to retrieve, 

The virtuous to uphold. 
Inventive power, combining skill; 

A persevering soul, 
Of human hearts to mold the will, 

And reach from pole to pole. 



22. I want the seals of power and place, 

The ensigns of command; 
Charged by the People's unbought grace, 

To rule my native land— 
Nor crown, nor scepter would I ask, 

But from my country's will, 
By day, by night, to ply the task, 

Her cup of bliss to fill. 



PREFACE. 27 



23. I want the voice of honest praise, 

To follow me behind; 
And to be thought, in future days, 

The friend of human-kind. 
That after ages, as they rise, 

Exulting may proclaim, 
In choral union, to the skies, 

Their blessings on my name. 



These are the wants of mortal man, 

I cannot want them long — 
For life itself is but a span, 

And earthly bliss a song. 
My last great want, absorbing all, 

Is, when beneath the sod, 
And summon'd to my final call, 

The mercy of my God. 






ste 
1 



CHAPTER I. 
Sound Health For The Body. 

How long do you desire and expect the various 
parts of your body to keep in fine condition to do 
good work for you ? As long as you live ? And how 
long is that? Eighty, ninety, a hundred years? 
Do you bear in mind, that if all parts of your body, 
except one, remain in perfect condition, you are 
going to be miserable in spite of all possible wealth, 
honor or other powers and gifts, in proportion as 
this one part is an important one, such as the stom- 
ach, the eye, the ear, etc. ? In the days of thy youth, 
or as soon thereafter as you wake up to this 
important necessity, prepare for a happy old age, 
and for the dawn of eternity. Better make no mis- 
take here. Is it not wiser to labor for these bless- 
ings, than to allow yourself recklessly to drift into 
the opposite condition, which is premature death or 
long suffering, total annihilation. Between these 
two must be our choice. There is no other alter- 
native. 

2S 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 29 

Through education this subject should receive 
closest attention. 

It may safely be admitted, that in these days of 
advancement few people are ignorant of the fact 
that health of body is one of the main essentials 
for happiness; and yet how little real knowledge 
the average man, woman or child possess on this 
subject would seem at times amazing. When we 
notice the errors that are being committed in that 
direction so frequently, and when we consider how 
few persons there are, who are enjoying perfect 
physical health, we can readily understand why the 
happiness among the people is much interfered with 
on account of ignorance and violation of the laws 
of health. Education needs to improve consider- 
ably in reference to the training of the young as 
well as of the middle-aged and old, regarding the 
care of their bodies. Though it is probably true 
that the teaching in schools has improved to some 
extent in this respect in recent years, and that the 
sanitary conditions of most of our schools and 
homes are undoubtedly better on the average to-day 
than they were, say twenty-five years ago, — but 
is this sufficient to insure a person from childhood 
up against the loss of one of the most necessary 
•features for his happiness during his life-time : con- 
tinued good health? I most earnestly advocate the 



30 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

omission of rather any other teaching in the educa- 
tion of the young, than to neglect the teaching of the 
proper care of the body. The question "What 
would it benefit a man if he should gain the whole 
world and lose his own soul?" might with all due 
reverence be put with a slight change of wording 
regarding physical health, so as to read "What 
would it benefit a man if he should gain the whole 
world and lose his own health?" thus testifying to 
the importance of this essential regarding "The 
Happy. Life." Bearing in mind the old saying : "An 
ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of 
cure," this fact applies with particular strength 
to conditions of health, and as moreover the pur- 
poses of this book are not so much to teach how to 
cure the sick, but rather how to continue and retain 
sound health — in the following lines will only be 
stated come of the most important rules likely to 
prove of value as regards principles apt to insure 
continued health during a long and happy life. 

The stomach is one of the mainsprings of life 
and happiness. 

Good nutrition is the main source of steady work, 
good temper and self-control; often it is the straw 
in the balance between life and health, for instance 
in the days of convalescence. Someone has said 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 31 

that diet is the philosopher's stone, by which a man 
can be made lively or sad, good or bad, lazy or 
studious, long or short-lived. This much is certain : 
Of all important duties of the human organism, 
eating is one of the foremost; the way we eat, and 
what we eat, has much to do with our health, 
happiness and longevity. Our stomachs are the 
mainsprings of the continuation of life and hap- 
piness. They are the chemical laboratories wherein 
is generated life-force. The possession of a strong 
digestive apparatus is therefore a valuable gift ; but 
it is a fact that many a person with naturally weak 
digestive organs has secured better health and 
longer life by knowing how to care for them, than 
did the person of a strong digestive apparatus who 
lived in ignorance and violation of the laws of 
health. This important apparatus is probably as 
much abused by the quality and inferior method of 
preparation of our food, as by errors in quantity. 

Temperance in eating and drinking as important 
for securing happiness as is moderation in all 
things. 

"Stop eating before you feel stuffed ; stop drink- 
ing before you feel heated/' is one of Benjamin 
Franklin's advices, and it is a good one to observe. 
With the average person, instinct is as a rule a safe 



32 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

guide in this matter, perhaps the safest; it is even 
^o with most animals, only drunkards, gluttons, 
degenerates and insane,i. e. people with depraved 
appetites cannot be trusted in following their 
instincts. These fortunately however, are the 
exceptions. 

Instinct: The voice of the Creator. 

Intemperance while being one of the main causes 
of disease of the body as of the mind, is in itself a 
mild form of insanity. The average person, like 
even the animal, knows instinctively when enough 
food has been taken to sustain life, and again when 
more food should be consumed. Instinct is a won- 
derful guide; appetite is only one form of it. Did 
you ever realize what a wise counsellor instinct is? 
Did you ever realize how throughout creation in all 
forms of animal life it is a marvellous guide, like 
the Creator's voice speaking to His creations^ His 
creatures. Who tells for instance to the little life 
imprisoned in the egg, in case the egg-shell does 
not burst by itself (as sometimes happens) that it 
must rap with its little beak on the shell till the 
latter does burst open, so it can come out into the 
world ? Who tells the new-born that it must breathe, 
and how to do it? — You may answer. "It does so 
automatically." However, this may be questioned; 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY, 33 

but even if it were so, does not that prove in itself 
the wonderful wisdom of the Maker of such a per- 
fect automaton? Who tells the lamb that it must 
not eat meat, but must feed on herbs, and only on 
certain ones, and must leave the poisonous ones 
alone? Who tells the young lion that it must not 
eat grass, but meat ? Who tells the young dog, the 
young horse to walk on its legs, the young bird 
to spread out its wings and fly in the air ; and so on 
and on? The answer we give, is: "Instinct that 
wonderful voice of wisdom inborn in all living 
things." Someone may say : "They learn from their 
parents." But even if this were so, which may be 
questioned, who told the young to imitate their 
parents, and do as they do? So again we come back 
to instinct, the wonderful voice of the Creator. 
(See in Chapter III: "Sensible Religious Principles 
Based on Facts" other evidences of the presence and 
wisdom, care and guiding of the Omnipotent Crea- 
tor.) Therefore guard all your instincts, and in 
reference to the subject of nourishment: guard 
your appetite from becoming depraved, and you 
will have a valuable guide to help you decide many 
important questions regarding the health of the 
body and mind. "Stop eating before you feel 
stuffed, stop drinking before you feel heated/' and 
you will be saved the thousand and one ailings of 
body as well as mind, that are the direct causes of 



34 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 



non-observance of this important and wise principle, 
and which deprive such a vast number of people 
from true enjoyment and the real happiness of life. 

Diseases caused by immoderate eating and drinking. 

Some of the troubles in milder or more severe 
form thus caused by immoderate eating or drinking, 
are these : Indigestion, headache, constipation, dis- 
turbed blood-circulation, colds, catarrh, diarrhoea, 
nervousness, impure blood, liver-trouble, kidney- 
trouble, heart-trouble, numerous diseases of the 
digestive organs, appendicitis, sleeplessness, insanity. 
(See in Chapter II, article: "Influence of Body on 
Mind"). If you consider how a few minutes more 
or less eating daily will make such a difference in 
the happiness of an entire life, you will naturally 
ask : "Does it pay to eat or drink to excess ?' Be a 
kind and considerate master to your own body ; give 
the organs of digestion like faithful employees 
occasionally a rest, or even a short vacation, and 
they will do good work for you, and serve you for 
a much longer period than they otherwise could. 
Keep on overworking them, and they will begin 
doing poor work, repel, refuse to accept additional 
material, go on a strike, or quit working altogether, 
which in the case of important employees such as 
the kidneys, the stomach, the liver (i. e. the inner 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 35 

organs) would mean stagnation sooner or later, 
failure of the whole plant, death to the entire system. 
It is the realization of this condition, which has 
caused many nations to accept occasional fasting as 
a part of their religion; so do the Hebrews, and 
among the Christian denominations especially the 
Catholics to this day. 

Breaking down of system caused by over-indulg- 
ence. 

If persons reflect a moment so as to form some 
estimate of the quantity of food they expect their 
stomachs to work into flesh and blood, in say only 
one year, by adding up their daily consumption, 
and then multiplying it by 365 to get one year's 
supply, they might be astounded at the wagon-loads 
of food they expect their little stomachs to digest, 
and they would perhaps rather wonder that the 
machine does not begin to break down sooner than 
it does. On the other hand, remember how often 
it has been proven that a person can go for many 
days without any food at all, and can live in per- 
fect health for years on such a small quantity of 
food, which heavy eaters would suppose to be alto- 
gether insufficient. Some physicians have become 
noted for the remarkable cures of all kinds they 
have successfully accomplished by simply having 



36 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

their patients go through a system of fasting (which 
means giving a rest to the digestive organs, as we 
require an occasional rest for other organs), and a 
system of dieting. Hot water should be taken on 
such fasting days, preferably mixed with milk, 
beef-tea, or other tea or coffee, in the place of 
meals, three times daily. And remember well, that 
on the day of fasting, you must also rest your mind 
and body from exertion of any kind. 

How to eat. 

"Eat in order to live/' and not "Live in order to 
eat/' should be the principle. We are not benefited 
by the amount of food we eat, but by the amount 
our digestive organs are able to digest. Do not 
neglect the care of the teeth. By their aid, part 
of the digestion is performed in the mouth, when 
the food is mixed with saliva. Therefore, little food 
eaten slowly and properly chewed, gives more 
strength and nourishment than large quantities 
swallowed hastily. It is the quality not the quantity 
that is of first consideration. A cheerful state of 
mind is also very helpful to digestion, and thus the 
old saying, "Laughter is healthful/' contains plenty 
of true meaning. Gentle physical exercise before 
eating is as helpful as a half hour's rest after eating. 
Violent exercise (of body or mind) either before 



SOUND HEAI/TH FOR THE BODY. 37 

or after a meal is highly injurious. It is well to eat 
at regular hours, with from four to five hour's' in- 
terval between, three or four meals each day, and 
not to touch any food whatever between meals. 

Easily digested foods. 

Among the most easily digested foods are : Eggs 
(raw, whipped or soft boiled), milk (raw or 
boiled), boiled rice, boiled tripe, sago, barley, tapi- 
oca, beef-tea, mutton-broth, raw oysters. Then 
follow : Chicken, turkey, pigeon, baked apples, 
oranges, boiled potatoes, lettuce, fresh fish, mutton. 
The time for the digestion of different foods varies 
from iy 2 hours to 4^ hours. All food is more 
easily digested when boiled than when fried or 
roasted. 

Stimulants and Medicines. 

Stimulating drinks to increase the appetite are 
highly injurious. Even the stimulating effect of 
medicines should only be resorted to when all other 
means fail to effect a cure. The use of stimulants 
and medicines has been compared with the act of 
whipping a tired horse. It may be the means of 
bringing the enfeebled creature safely to warm 
shelter, there to recuperate, but it may cause it to 
break down sooner, unless chance for rest and for 



38 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

recreation is readily provided. God in His wisdom 
created a sort of reserve-fund in the system, which 
in a sound body (like the reserve-fund in a sound 
business) is of sufficient strength to counteract an 
occasional calamity without requiring the aid of 
outside help. If not compelled as a last resort to 
go borrowing, better rely on your own funds that 
may yet be in your system. Once you get started to 
borrowing strength from medicines, you may be- 
come too dependent on them. Stimulants of all 
kinds sometimes become the masters and overpower 
the users of same, as does occasionally the money- 
lender in business matters. Alcoholic drinks, mor- 
phine, opium, and other stimulants and medicines 
have destroyed many lives, and have often done 
more harm than good, though they may like the 
money-lender, in times of emergency prove of much 
real benefit. The vital force in the body is the only 
power that can cure disease, and all a medicine can 
do is to aid this power of life, which is at work 
constantly. 

The physician's help and value. 

Do not postpone going to the physician until it 
is too late for him to help you. Do not expect the 
impossible of him, i. e., to bring the dead to life 
again. Select a conscientious and competent man, 



SOUND HEAI/TH FOR THE BODY. 39 

and seek his advice as soon as you feel the need, 
i. e., when you find the general rules of hygiene do 
not improve your condition ; and then obey him im- 
plicitly. Our system of paying physicians places 
them constantly in the eyes of many persons under 
suspicion of purposely keeping patients on their 
sick-list. The temptation to do so may often be 
strong, especially with physicians of small income 
and small practice. Would it not be better for the 
public as well as the medical profession, to follow 
the system of payment which is successfully in 
operation in many countries, i. e., for a family to 
employ a physician the year round, at a salary ac- 
cording to the means of each family ? In considera- 
tion of this salary, the physician visits the family 
regularly and examines the physical condition of 
each member of the same from time to time. Thus 
he is often able to check an illness before it has be- 
come serious, while with our present system he is 
often only called upon to help when it is too late, 
i. e., when he can do but little in affording relief 
or prevent death. The system I am here advocating 
also gives the physician a more regular annual in- 
come, and removes all suspicion from him of act- 
ing on mercenary motives. For poor families there 
is this other advantage in this system, that if illness 
breaks out, they do not have the extra expenditure 
necessitated in times of illness, which with the pres- 



40 SOUND HEAI/TH FOR THE BODY. 

ent system is particularly hard on them, when the 
father or mother themselves fall sick, as then there 
is all support for the family taken away from them. 

Longevity. 

While a certain medical man recently made the 
remarkable statement that man after passing the 
forty-year-mark was of not much use in this world, 
and after reaching sixty should be removed by a 
painless poison,— Dr. Lyman Beecher Sperry of 
Oberlin, Ohio, shortly thereafter expressed himself 
as follows : "The destructive forces which bring 
about the present low average of longevity are 
manifold, but I believe that it is possible to 
enjoy health and activity up to a century and 
a half, by a proper understanding of the human 
possibilities and the exercise of this knowledge. 
Such is my conclusion/' he added, "after a third 
of a century of scientific study." Probably a happy 
medium between these two extreme statements 
would bring us nearer to the truth. 

Exercise and blood-circulation. 

A moderate amount of exercise is as necessary 
every day as a moderate amount of food, though 
over-exertion is as dangerous as over-eating. Take 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 41 

your exercise whenever possible in the open air; or 
if indoors, in a well ventilated place, not in a room 
containing bad air, as is sometimes found in gymna- 
siums, school-rooms or other places where numer- 
ous people congregate, which air when heated, is 
particularly dangerous to health. There are few 
more successful ways for a man or woman to under- 
mine their health and grow prematurely weak and 
aged, than to abstain from such lively, exhilarating, 
physical exercise taken in the pure air, as sends 
the blood pleasurably bounding through the veins, 
fills the thousands of lung-cells with pure, fresh air, 
is Nature's best medicine, and rewards immediately 
by giving the one thus exercising a new lease on 
life and a true sense of the joy of living, as can be so 
abundantly obtained in no other way. Goethe, the 
renowned German poet and philosopher, says some- 
where : "What all wisdom of the wise has not yet 
discovered, that the happy child is practicing by 
instinct." Out-door exercise stimulates the action 
of the heart most beneficially; it thereby purifies 
the blood and quickens the circulation of the same, 
which several functions are so valuable in retaining 
fine health, for the reason that the blood is that 
fluid in the body, which by circulation constantly 
rebuilds what is being used up. By active circula- 
tion good blood destroys disease-germs, which fact 
explains the reason why persons in sound health 



42 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

may come in contact with contagious diseases with- 
out being necessarily affected thereby, when others 
with sluggish, impure blood would in their places 
succumb readily. By the aid of pure blood the vital 
force in the body cures many troubles without medi- 
cines. To exercise in fresh air produces a rosy 
complexion in most persons immediately. It is an 
indication of the blood circulating freely, therefore 
a rosy complexion is generally taken as a sign of 
good health, while cold hands and cold feet indicate 
insufficient circulation. The latter will cause the 
person having such, serious trouble sooner or later 
without fail. Plenty of exercise is the best preven- 
tion, also hot foot-baths are helpful. It is a curious 
fact that sour-faced dyspeptics, hypocrites and other 
such cranks, who object to these beneficial exercises 
and amusements (including dancing), and instead 
are seen stalking about in monotonous solemnity 
and false dignity, are the very ones who need such 
healthful recreation more than anyone: "To shake 
the cobwebs from their brain." See the happy 
children at their play. Compare their health and 
happiness with that of those who for some deplor- 
able reason are deprived of this so necessary and 
delightful pastime. And likewise it is identically 
the same with grown-up folks, the "big" children. 
There are few better ways of dispelling attacks of 
the blues, than by such indulgence 



SOUND HEAI/TH FOR THE BODY. 43 

Importance of fresh, pure air and sunlight. 

"And God breathed the breath of life into man, 
and he became a living thing/' is the way we read 
it in the Bible. This is as true today as ever. Be- 
tween the cold stiffness of the dead body, and the 
vigorous frame of the robust athlete in the full en- 
joyment and beauty of physical perfection, there are 
any number of grades and degrees of healthfulness 
or sickly weakness, just as there are numerous 
grades between total blindness and perfect eyesight. 
To the extent that we vigorously inhale the breath 
of life, i. e. nature's pure fresh air, just in that 
proportion are we often found either nearer the 
side of death or nearer the side of perfect health 
and strength, i. e. life. Did you ever stop to think 
how the millions of living things in the world are 
all feeding on this breath of life, day and night, 
asleep or awake, every moment of their existence 
sucking on that great strengthgiving force? Cut 
off your connection with the breath of life by being 
prevented from breathing for a few minutes, and 
you are cut off from the living, and though other- 
wise in the prime of health, you become immediately 
a dead corpse. Thus therefore we may well and 
truthfully say, a person is alive or dead often just 
in proportion as he receives plenty or little of that 
life-giving force into his system, which is thus a 



44 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

gift coming directly from the wise and omnipotent 
Creator; yes, who knows but that this ozone, this 
life-giving force, is not perhaps the very thread by 
which we are in truth and reality of Him a part? 
Another gift the Creator has furnished in abund- 
ance, and which does not seem sufficiently appre- 
ciated by many persons, is : ''Sunlight.'* Light is 
Life. Get plenty of it ; yet as in all things in modera- 
tion ; extreme exposure to sunlight causes sunstroke 
and other troubles. 

The best drink. 

Next to pure, fresh air and sunlight, pure fresh 
water is perhaps of the most vital importance to 
the health of the body. Water and milk are the two 
drinks that are Nature's direct gifts to man. Water 
is the most healthful and the most refreshing drink. 
It quenches the thirst more delightfully than all 
those drinks fabricated by man ; in short, it is the 
best drink. 

The delightful benefits of the daily bath. 

As water is indispensable as a beverage, so it is 
equally valuable for bathing purposes. The distin- 
guished pulpit-orator Henry Ward Beecher has been 
mentioned as the author of the well known state- 



SOUND HEAI/TH FOR THE BODY. 45 

ment: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." There 
is no question, but that as frequent bathing cleanses 
and benefits the body, so it promotes purity of mind 
and morals. One of Benj. Franklin's twelve life- 
principles was : "Do not allow any uncleanliness 
on yourself, on your clothing or in your home." 
In proportion as civilization has advanced and the 
laws of health have become to be better understood, 
so with the refinement of manners, also purity of 
person and of morals has been developed. One of 
the best proofs of the enjoyment, of the improved 
health and of the many other excellent benefits the 
daily bathing in cold water affords, lies in the fact 
that those who have once formed the habit, are 
enthusiastic in their praise of it, and would as well 
go without their breakfast as to discontinue the 
healthful pleasure of their daily plunge or sponge- 
bath. Those who have once tasted the delight, the 
cheerfulness, the feeling of moral as well as physi- 
cal elevation which follows the vigorous rubbing of 
the body after the bath, could not be persuaded to 
give this comfort up again. Of the many different 
baths used for various purposes, the occasional 
indulgence in a turkish (or Russian) bath is espec- 
ially to be recommended on account of the stimu- 
lation it affords to the pores of the skin, on account 
of the liberal perspiration it produces, which means 
the washing of the solid and fluid tissues, the blood 



46 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

and skin, by passing water through them from with- 
in outward to the surface of the body, and on ac- 
count of the fresh color it lends to the complexion, 
especially if the bather drinks water freely during 
the sweating process. The frequent bathing has 
this other advantage that it renders the person less 
susceptible of catching cold. 

Proper clothing a preventative of disease. 

It is well to observe such precautions regarding 
the clothing of your body as common-sense and mod- 
eration would demand, avoiding extreme exposure 
as well as too sudden change of clothing in winter- 
time, and avoiding also the folly of overburdening 
the body with warm heavy clothing in summertime. 
While much clothing is objectionable in winter- 
time, more dress-reform in that direction would 
seem particularly desirable for our comfort and 
happiness in the summertime. Who has not ob- 
served with amusement the actions of those droll 
people who put on a lot of clothing in the hot sum- 
mertime and then suffer agonies, everlastingly com- 
plaining how hot they feel, and anxiously inquiring 
how they might obtain some relief. A look at the 
happy bather in his bathing costume it seems would 
like 'a word to the wise/ be sufficient in itself, mak- 
ing further suggestions superfluous. 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 47 

The temperate climate is the best. 

The most beneficial temperature to live in is 
from 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit; and as temper- 
ance is beneficial in all things, so also the climate 
best adapted for healthfulness, long life and the 
highest development of man is the temperate 
climate. 

Overwork, rest, sleep. 

The rule 'Moderation in all things' applies equally 
also to exercise and work, as to rest and sleep. 
Allow yourself from 6 to 8 hours sleep out of every 
24 hours. Sleep in a cool, well-ventilated room 
with sufficient covering so as not to get chilled 
during your sleep, as the temperature of the body 
is then lower than in waking hours. For various 
reasons it is not well for many persons to sleep in 
the same room. One bed for each sleeper should 
be the rule. Exercise moderation too as regards 
sexual intercourse. Excess in this direction is 
particularly harmful. Total abstinence is far better 
than over-indulgence; the mere momentary contact 
or intercourse with a person erring in this respect 
may permanently threaten your welfare bodily as 
well as mentally. 



48 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE BODY. 

Relation and influence of body on mind. 

In consequence of the close connection existing 
between body and mind, it is but natural that errors 
are often being committed in seeking to remove 
physical or mental deficiency or ailments by treat- 
ment given to the body, when the trouble lies in the 
mind, and vice versa. Deficient functions of the 
body are sometimes due to deficient functions of 
the mind, and vice versa. So energy or lack of it, 
activity or laziness, restlessness or phlegma, will- 
power or lack of it, self-control or lack of it, 
strength or weakness, misery or contentment, pain 
or joy, the normal or disturbed action of the heart, 
the stomach, the liver etc. etc. are the result as often 
of physical as of mental function. When we deprive 
our bodies for some time of proper nourishment, 
we are apt to suffer with headache ; and if weakened 
through hunger and bodily exhaustion, we may be- 
come incapable of any kind of mental exertion, 
even to the extent of insanity. Numerous derange- 
ments of bodily functions produce corresponding 
effects upon the mind. Tea and coffee stimulate 
mental, functions. Alcoholic drinks and narcotics 
intoxicate. 



CHAPTER II. 
Sound Health For The Mind. 



It is all very true, of course, that a person is to 
a large extent merely the result of inheritance, edu- 
cation, surroundings etc., and we may consequently 
well agree with the advice of the humorist: a You 
can not be too careful in the selection of your par- 
ents/' yet it is a very evident fact likewise, that "we 
are also to a large extent just what we make of 
purselves." A naturally delicate child, through 
careful nursing and observance of the laws of health, 
oftentimes grows up to surpass not only in physical 
health and strength the well-born infant that is 
being neglected, but also often outlives the latter by 
many years. Such instances are so numerous that 
they need no further comment, and this fact applies 
the same in regard to mental development as m 
regard to physical development. Alas, some of the 
most promising young minds have ended their days 
in insane asylums, and do we not know that there 
are found among the most brilliant men the world 
has ever known, the names of those whose biogra- 

49 



50 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

phies tell us that they were considered dull and un- 
promising in their younger days ? ! At the same 
time it must be confessed, that if there is yet insuffi- 
cient attention paid by a large class of people to 
the attainment of the highest degree of happiness 
through strict observance of tne laws of physical 
health, there is evidently less knowledge yet exist- 
ing regarding the laws of mental health. 

Virtues bring contentment; . and crime is often due 
to mental disease-germs, causing misery. 

There is no doubt that many persons would be 
a great deal better for it, if they would exercise as 
much care regarding what thy put into their stom- 
achs and into their brains, as they are in regard to 
what they take out of their pocket-books. The Bible 
says "As a man thinketh in his mind, so is he," and 
surely there is a heap of truth in these words. In 
these days we speak instead of 'self-hypnotism/ 
which means the same thing. Take any of the 
thousands of instances to prove this. For example : 
one man thinketh in his mind a good deal about 
what he hasn't got and is everlastingly coveting 
things of other people, he can see nothing he might 
be grateful for, and is therefore consequently pro- 
portionately discontent, unhappy more or less all 
the time ; the other man though perhaps not having 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 51 

half as much as the former, thinketh in his mind 
with feelings of gratefulness about the things he 
does have, and lets others enjoy theirs. What is 
the consequence? The latter is the happier of the 
two. Have we not all met occasionally the always 
contented, though oftentimes penniless Happy-go- 
lucky, as also the constantly dissatisfied, though 
sometimes exceedingly wealthy Hypochondriac and 
Hypocrite? Cultivate the spirit of gratefulness; 
it will help you to be content, to be happy. Do you 
know that it is a fact, that good thoughts always in- 
cline to improve the health and to increase hap- 
piness ? There are no end of proofs for that ; and- 
vice versa: bad thoughts do the reverse. These 
latter create disturbances in the mind as in the body, 
they put everything out of place snd upset all na- 
ture's calculations. Through this very evident fact 
that good thoughts are a blessing and that vicious 
thoughts create trouble, we seem to recognize and 
learn one of God's divine laws. Therefore as help- 
ful for physical and mental well-being as are Grate- 
fulness, Kindness, Forgiveness, Love, Harmony, 
Cheerfulness, Temperance, Self-Control, Justice, 
and other virtues, so equally harmful are antago- 
nistic spirits such as Ungratefulness, Malice, Re- 
venge, Hatred, Quarrel, Whining, excesses of all 
kinds, injustice and other vices. As regards 
happiness, it cannot be denied that the practice of 



52 SOUND HEAI/TH FOR THE MIND. 

various vices evidently affords some people momen- 
tary joy and pleasure; so it might be asked: Why 
then designate them as objectionable vices and con- 
demn them ? The answer is simple : Mainly and 
primarily we condemn vices for the reason, that the 
suffering they cause is proportionately much greater 
than the benefit derived, and common-sense teaches 
us to condemn such actions which prevent more 
happiness than they create. It is in fact thus evi- 
dent that an action is virtuous or vicious just exactly 
in proportion as it increases or decreases happiness 
either for ourselves or for others. Who has not 
experienced the pleasure of giving presents to the 
loved ones, and has not been made happy in pro- 
portion as he saw he was creating happiness? And 
who has not felt regret and sorrow for having 
caused pain and suffering either to himself or 
others ? 

Mental Disturbance Causes Disease of the Body. 

How powerful an influence the mind exercises 
over the body is further proven by such facts for 
instance, as that anxiety and grief often cause pal- 
pitation of the heart, that joy acts similarly, and 
that as the heart is thus affected by mental action, 
so are also other parts of the body ; fear may cause 
an attack of cold perspiration, diarrhoea or dys- 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 53 

entery, while at other times mental disturbance may 
cause constipation. Strong emotions frequently 
cause fainting spells. Continued weeping has been 
known to produce the urine to flow. Indigestion 
or vomiting is often the result of bad news or other 
shocking sensations. A violent emotion is known 
to have changed the color of a person's hair in a 
single night ; persons from the same effect have been 
struck dumb, deaf and blind. Great grief or great 
joy, especially if coming suddenly and unexpectedly, 
have caused instantaneous death, and that persistent 
torturer called "worry" is counting its victims by 
thousands. Remarkable instances of the influence 
of the mental state of the mother upon the physical 
as well as mental condition of the babe illustrate 
this fact still more plainly. In these few instances 
we see how the health of the body is affected by 
disturbed actions of the mind, precisely as it is by 
certain poisions, chemicals, etc., while a happy and 
cheerful state of mind is not only essential for the 
continuation of bodily health, but equally valuable in 
times of bodily sickness for the purpose of further- 
ing the reconvalesence of the sick. It is no doubt 
due to these indisputable facts, that the so-called 
Faith-Healers have fallen into the unfortunate error 
that all diseases of the body can be cured through 
the influence of the mind; this is another instance 
of going into extremes and of the unavoidable con- 
sequences : disappointment and trouble. 



54 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

Proper Exercise of Mind as Necessary as that of 
the Body, Both Being Composed of Various 
Parts. 

It has been proven that as the body consists of 
various parts, so does the mind. As we speak of 
the body either as a whole, or of the different parts 
of the same, such as the arms, the legs, the chest, 
the head, etc., and as these are each again consist- 
ing of smaller parts, such as the upper-arm and the 
fore-arm, etc., and as these can again be divided 
into still smaller parts — so w r e may speak of the 
mind as a whole or we may speak of its parts, as 
like the body it consists of parts, each of which may 
again be divided and subdivided into smaller 
parts. Thus we speak of: the Will, the 
Memory, Perception, Attention, Imagination, 
Observation, Conception, Logic, Judgment, 
Reasoning, Retention, etc., and in speaking 
of this or that person, it may be said for in- 
stance : "He has a fine memory, but his judgment 
is poor," or "he has a fine memory for names, but 
a poor memory for faces," or "his power of observa- 
tion and his logic are excellent, but he is evidently 
devoid of all will-power," or "his reasoning seems 
faulty, perhaps partly on account of his strong im- 
agination," etc., etc. And while we advocated for 
continued sound health of the body the exercising 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE) MIND. 55 

of all parts of same, so for continued health of 
the mind the exercise of all its parts is essential. 
The object of this book, however, being merely to 
mention such features which benefit the happiness 
of an individual, therefore as in the previous chapter 
in speaking of the necessity of physical exercise we 
could not go into details such as would be found 
in a book on gymnastic exercises, so we must in this 
chapter refer the reader to books on Psychology and 
Psychic Culture for further details regarding the care 
of the mind. Excess in the exercise of the mind is 
as harmful as is excessive exercise of the body. 
Excessive mental labor not only fatigues the mind 
but also the body, just as excessive physical labor 
not only fatigues the body but also the mind. 

Dangers of Abnormal Development of the Mind. 

Statistics of physical training prove that there is 
a limit of strength and endurance existing in each 
person, which no amount of training can overcome 
without grave dangers to a complete breakdown 
(professional athletes often die of consumption) ; 
so abnormal development of the mind has often 
caused grave mental troubles, nervous prostration, 
insanity, etc. Moderate, harmonious development 
of the whole body and mind, it is true, may not be 
apt to produce astounding athletes or geniuses, but 



56 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

it is more inclined to give happiness and long 
healthy life, than can be secured by abnormal 
development of some special part of the body or 
the mind. The ordinary farm-horse is generally apt 
to be more useful than the abnormally developed 
race-horse; and in spite of the great care given to 
the latter, the former has better prospects for long 
life, as the latter is constantly exposed to dangers 
the former knows nothing of and has no reason to 
fear. The persons whose minds are abnormally 
developed i. e., those who are exceptionally talented 
and able in a certain direction, are apt to be pro- 
portionately weak in another ; they are the ones who 
are liable to be eccentric, if not partially insane. 
Many insane persons are perfectly rational in all 
respects but one special one, and will therefore ap- 
pear sane to everybody until this weak spot i. e., 
the diseased part of their mind is touched, just as 
a person may be physically in perfect condition, ex- 
cepting for instance the loss of a finger, a hand or 
an arm, or having weak lungs or other larger 
or minor defects. In these cases, plenty of rest, 
good nourishment and appropriate treatment with 
strict observance of the laws of health, will often- 
times accomplish splendid results, even secure per- 
fect restoration of the diseased part. We know 
that while there are not many persons who are 
enjoying perfectly sound physical health, there are 



SOUND KKAI/TH FOR fHti MIND. 57 

at the same time comparatively few who are so dis- 
eased physically that they have to be put into hospi-' 
tate. Likewise there are not many persons who' 
may be said to be perfectly sound in mind, though 
there are but a comparatively small number who 
are mentally so diseased that they have to be placed 
into asylums, the great majority of the people being 
neither perfect in body and mind, nor altogether 
diseased and entirely broken physically or men- 
tally. 

How to Retain Sound Mind to Old Age. 

The brain is the digesting apparatus of mental 
food as the stomach is the digesting apparatus of 
material food ; while we must furnish each of these 
apparatuses daily a moderate amount of wholesome 
food, the overloading process is as pernicious 
in one case as in the other. There is no more reason 
that we should in old age become total wrecks 
physically, as there is that we should become men- 
tally totally helpless. Thank God, He has enabled 
us, and teaches us, in this here book for instance, to 
prevent either misfortune. As you must be careful 
as to the quantity and quality you expect your 
stomach to digest, so you must likewise exercise 
the same care as to what you put into your mind 
in the way of mental food. Therefore choose for in- 



58 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

stance your reading matter with care ; the books you 
study and the topics of conversation you select or 
enter into ; in fact everything which has an influence 
upon the direction in which you engage your mind to 
work in, should consequently receive careful atten- 
tion. It has been mentioned before, that many per- 
sons, — if they would observe the same care as re- 
gards what they put into their minds and stomachs, 
as they observe what they take out of their pocket- 
books, would be mightily benefited by such pro- 
ceeding. Light food as light thoughts are at times 
as good or better to indulge in than those that 
are more substantial, and vice versa. "Variety is 
the spice of life/ 1 is appropriate here as in other 
matters in behalf of the attainment of happiness. 
Exercise all functions of the mind. It is an old 
saying that we cannot remain at a standstill, that we 
must either progress or retrograte. It seems a pre- 
vailing error with many, to think that this rule does 
not apply to themselves as regards their mental de- 
velopment. We seem inclined to overburden the 
mind of the young, and let that of the old and 
middle-aged go to rack and ruin. What a terrible 
and disastrous mistake this is regarding our hap- 
piness ! Awakening to the realization of the misery 
existing in the world which is arising largely just 
from ignorance, — educators have put forth an al- 
most superhuman effort to crowd into the child's 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 59 

brain everything anybody has ever heard of, discov- 
ered or invented ; consequently the abominable pro- 
cess of so-called 'cramming' is practiced in many 
schools at the present time to an alarming extent, 
these ambitious educators themselves having tum- 
bled into the common error "to fall from one ex- 
treme into another." 

Danger of Overtaxing the Minds of the Young. 

Laws have been enacted against the employment 
of children in severe physical labor, but no such 
fostering care does the state as yet bestow upon the 
young as regards their minds and brains. The 
harm that is thus done to children through ignor- 
ance of well-meaning parents who are in the end 
themselves sufferers for the disappointing results 
caused by their immoderate ambition for their child- 
ren, is pitiful; it is therefore herewith referred 
to as a cause of much unhappiness. Most physi- 
cians know of this through personal experience in 
their practice. Dr. W. A. Hammond mentions the 
case of a boy with a large head, prominent forehead 
and all other signs of mental precocity, who was 
brought to him by his father, the latter relating to 
him that when the child was only five years old, he 
had already read the first volume of Bryant's His- 
tory of the United States, and was preparing to 



60 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE) MIND. 

tackle the other volumes ; that already then he read 
the magazines of the day with as much interest as 
the father did himself, and conversed with facility 
on the politics of the period. "But," continued the 
grief-stricken father, "all that is different now ; a 
great change has taken place within the past few 
years; the boy has begun to walk in his sleep, 
chorea has made its appearance, he has recently had 
a well-marked epileptic paroxism, his mind is wand- 
ering and is, I am afraid, permanently weakened." 
Cases of a similar nature are of not infrequent oc- 
currence. And while the mind may not always show 
the disastrous results of overwork within so short 
a period as a few years, the fact that we have so 
few T people who retain strength of mind to a happy 
old age is largely due to lack of knowledge regarding 
the care of the mind, in youth as well as in later 
years. Some persons, as the years roll on, become 
mentally weakened by lack of exercise of the var- 
ious functions of the mind, as often as by over- 
work. This need not be. It is to be hoped that the 
system of trying to cram all the knowledge that he 
is to acquire into the days of his youth, and stop all 
further training, of the mind when school is over, 
will give way to a plan which will afford persons in 
middle age, and even in later years, better opportu- 
nity for systematic continuation of mental training, 
than is at present furnished. This is the best way 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 61 

of keeping the mind healthful, vigorous and alert 
to old age. It has been said of Socrates, that he 
began the study of a language when eighty years 
of age. Let us profit by his example. 

The Mind a Store-House of Knowledge. 

The mind has been called the store-house of 
knowledge. Let us be careful therefore what we 
accept in this store-house; fill it with beautiful 
things, and your mind will be accordingly; fill it 
with horrible things, and your mind will be accord- 
ingly too. Whatever enters the mind through our 
senses, remains there for a long or short period ac- 
cording as the impression made was strong or weak. 
Consequently we can sometimes remember circum- 
stances that happened a long time ago perfectly 
plainly, while vice versa recent events may have be- 
come quickly extinguished. Whatever we see, hear, 
feel, taste, smell — everything leaves its impression 
on the mind. Our minds consequently are sound in 
proportion as the impressions made are sound. A 
person inclined to store in the mind as facts what in 
reality are not facts, in that proportion becomes of 
unsound mind. A person accepting falsehoods as 
truths, truths as falsehoods, thereby becomes 
mentally proportionately of unsound mind ; such 
persons' reasoning would necessarily have to be 



62 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

wrong in proportion accordingly. For when we 
form conclusions, when we think, we merely do 
so by reading from the impressions on our mind just 
as we read from a book the impressions that are 
on its pages. So we use terms in speaking of the 
mind the same as in speaking of a page in a book ; 
if nothing can be read from it, we say it is a blank; 
strong impressions on the mind as on the page last 
many years, light impressions fade quickly, etc., 
etc., and when we try to recall something from our 
memory, the action is similar to turning over the 
pages of a book, till we find what we know is some- 
where printed in it. 

Influence of Speech, Conversation. 

What we say, is the result of our reasoning, and 
every time we thus make a statement, we refreshen 
the same anew in our minds. Franklin says "When 
you speak, speak as you think; avoid sneakish 
ways, so that your thoughts may be without blemish, 
and just." The soundness of this advice is evident, 
for the person who does not speak as he thinks, 
thus confuses his own mind proportionately. 
Every time he makes a statement contrary to what 
is written on his mind, he creates a false impression 
there ; and if he does so frequently he creates in 
his brain what might be called a false mind, along- 



SOUND HEAI/fH FOR THE MIND. 63 

side of bis right mind ; if this act is repeated often 
and for years, this false mind may grow so exten- 
sively that the person may at times himself not know 
when he reads from his right mind and when from 
his false mind. Such persons form that class of mild- 
ly insane, who are spoken of as suffering from hal- 
lucinations; they are people who while not neces- 
sarily so insane that they have to be confined, yet 
at times by their actions and words give the impres- 
sion as not being in their right minds. Thus we 
find another of God's laws of punishment meted 
out to the falsifier of the truth, to the deceitful, 
to the fraudulent criminals and to other like charac- 
ters. This fact largely explains the cause why in 
court-proceedings it is often so difficult to decide 
whether the perpetrator of a vicious act is a crim- 
inal or an insane; the greater the crime, the more 
plainly evident is this relation between crime and 
insanity, and it does not happen infrequently that 
such unfortunates are transferred from the prison 
to the asylum, or vice versa. 

Beauty of Face Dependent as Much on Health of 
Mind as on Health of Body, The Science of 
Physiognomy. 

As thoughts impress themselves upon the mind, so 
the actions of the mind seek outward expression 



'64 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

on the face ; thus we have the frown, the smile, 
the expression of benevolence, haughtiness, and 
in fact the various facial expressions for all emo- 
tions which the mind is experiencing. We speak 
of the language of the eye; and the entire science 
of Physiognomy is based on this fact, that : frequent 
repetitions of certain emotions finally produce a 
lasting impression upon a person's face. Conse- 
quently it is evident that it is possible from the face 
to judge a person's character, though we must bear 
in mind that how to do so exactly in all cases may 
be no easy matter, as we cannot understand any 
science thoroughly, until we have made a thorough 
study of it. The lunatic is apt to look different than 
the man of noble character, the thief and villain dif- 
ferent than the honest and upright man, the philoso- 
pher and man of education different than the idiot 
or fool, the insane different than the man of sound 
mind. Beauty of face is an aid to happiness, secure 
it by proper training of the mind; that is the most 
rational way to accomplish lasting results in this 
respect. 

Music; Its Influence on Mind and Body. 

The influence of music over the mind (and body) 
is not yet fully appreciated. Calm, soft, slow, gentle 
sounds quiet the mind and create impressions of 



SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND 65 

peace and repose; they are a comfort to the sick 
•and weary, and have the power to cure some mental 
troubles such as insomnia, etc., for does not already 
the mother's instinct for instance tell her to hum 
•a lullaby for the restless baby, so it will more readily 
go to sleep? Loud sounds on the contrary, especi- 
ally when coming in rapid succession and in strong 
rhythmic pulsations, excite and arouse the mind and 
"body to action; so the bands of regiments in play- 
ing martial strains are considered invaluable as an 
. aid in war to lead the soldiers to victory ; these 
latter sounds consequently are painful and harm- 
ful to the delicate and sickly, as instinct teaches 
them that rest to the body and mind is what is most 
needful in their cases. The benefit of calm, soft, slow, 
gentle Music for invalids is beginning to be better 
understood, and should be utilized more extensively 
in hospitals and asylums as real blessings and 
sources of comfort and relief to the sick and suf- 
fering. 

Influence of Mind Upon Mind; Contact With Per- 
sons of Sound Mind Beneficial to Happiness, 
and Vice Versa. 

Just as contact with a person afflicted with a con- 
tagious disease may destroy anyone's physical 
health, so intercourse with people of more or less 



66 SOUND HEALTH FOR THE MIND. 

unsound minds is equally dangerous to our wel- 
fare and happiness. Insanity has been proven to be 
contagious under certain conditions. The influ- 
ences of companions is known to be great; and 
we are thus bound to be influenced by our friends 
as we are bound to exert an influence over them, 
all tending to increase or decrease our and their 
happiness in proportion to the strength of the mind 
exerting the greatest influence. 

The Well-Trained Mind a Powerful Aid to Happi- 
ness. 

In the last two chapters will be found ample evi- 
dence of the benefits arising to a person's happiness 
from the proper training and exercising of the 
mind. Self-control, i. e., the mastery of the mind 
over the body often proves to be one of the great- 
est safeguards regarding happiness and success in 
life. Therefore be wise in this respect and you will 
have gained a strong point, and you need fear none 
of the many sufferings that come to those who from 
ignorance or weakness fail in acting according to 
this, one of God's never-failing laws, manifested 
abundantly throughout His creation. At the same 
time it is unwise to overestimate the force of will- 
power. We are all liable to be influenced in our 
actions by the condition of our bodies, and there 



SOUND HKAI/TH FOR THE MIND. 67 

are many instances where the mental condition of 
a person is so entirely dependent upon physical con- 
ditions, that mere will-power or moral persuasion 
cannot exert the least influence. Everybody's will- 
power has its limit somewhere. (Further mention 
of this subject is made under the heading "The 
Knowledge of Human Nature/' in Chapter Y.) 



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CHAPTER III. 

Sensible and Successful Business 
Principles. 

The two main reasons why a man's business, or 
profession exercises such a powerful influence on 
his happiness, are : First, that his business or pro- 
fession generally represents the main and most 
important work of his whole life-time, i. e., it deter- 
mines the manner in which he is to be of service to 
the world (or community); and second: That it 
represents generally the main source of a person's 
income through life, i. e., this his life work entitles 
him to a proportionate share of material benefits 
(for himself and those he cares for), which he is to 
receive in return for his services to the world (com- 
munity) in accordance as these latter are more or 
less valuable and of benefit to humanity. 

Choice of business or profession. 

Consequently it is very proper that a person 
should exercise the greatest caution in deciding 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 69 

what business or profession he will engage in; this 
step is probably the most important in his life-time, 
both as regards himself, those dependent upon him, 
and the world at large. We can readily see of what 
importance this is to him and his people, and it is evi- 
dent why it is of like importance to the world at 
large, i. e., to the community he lives in. A commu- 
nity (a ?f union," that has many things in "common") 
has been spoken of as being in some respects like a 
family. Now supposing in a family the arrange- 
ment of the household is as follows : To the father 
are being given the little dolls to play with, the 
mother is told to go out and play foot-ball, the 
little girl is expected to support the family, and the 
little boy is told to sew, cook, and do house-clean- 
ing; what a nice fix they will be in. So in a 
community, if the most intelligent man is doing the 
work of the boot-black, street-cleaner or scavenger, 
and the most ignorant are acting as mayor, judge, 
minister or teacher, etc., — the result can be readily 
imagined. Hence let a person upon deciding what 
business or profession he will engage in, be guided 
primarily as to what his particular gifts are. Choose 
not so much as to whether there are many honors 
or much money-recompenses connected with cer- 
tain occupations, because no one can expect such in 
any profession unless he has the necessary qualifi- 
cations and fondness for that special work. Do not 



70 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

reason wrong, and do not expect to be successful 
'by putting the horses behind the wagon. The fact 
in the case is, that rewards in the way of money- 
recompenses, honors, etc. are conferred upon a per- 
son in proportion as he proves himself of value, of 
actual value to his neighbors, his community, the 
nation or the world at large, no matter in what ca- 
pacity. Let us remember that the few exceptions 
that are to this truth, do not make the rule, no more 
in this connection than in any other case. "He who 
does nothing for others, does nothing for himself." 
is an old true saying. The reason for lack of suc- 
cess is with some persons to be found in the single 
fact of their having what is called "missed their 
right calling ;" these unfortunates have chosen the 
wrong profession for themselves, and this fact ac- 
counts for much of their consequent unhappiness. 
Persons incompetent in their line of work, are apt 
to do more harm than the tramp, the idle ; the latter 
does nothing of value, it is true, but he is not apt 
to do much harm either. As he does nothing for 
anybody, so nobody does anything for him. The 
incompetent, the scoundrel, the criminal, however 
does something to others, and as a rule consequently 
the community through the law does something to 
him, especially to the two last named gentlemen. 
"As we sow, so we are apt to reap," there is no mis- 
take about that. We all remember the advice of 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 71 

the experienced business-man and well-meaning 
father, who in frank confidence said to his son: 
"My boy, honesty is the best policy; you can be- 
lieve me, for I have tried both." 

The Knowledge of What Creates Real Happiness 
Will Make this World a Paradise. 
Oh, what a heavenly paradise this world may 
be some day, when everybody will be perfect in his 
line of work, when everybody will understand more 
fully his duty toward securing happiness for himself 
and others! God surely created this world beauti- 
fully enough for the highest possible happiness, and 
all what prevents making it a veritable paradise 
to-day is the imperfection of the individual, his ig- 
norance regarding what causes true happiness. So 
there are for instance those persons who foolishly 
believe that the height of happiness is found in idle- 
ness, when in reality the opposite is the truth; so 
there are many others who foolishly believe that 
unrestrained self-indulgence and excess of all kind 
secures the height of happiness, when in reality 
(as is shown in the preceding two chapters) the 
opposite again is the truth, and so on and so on. 
The one longing for idleness never learns much of 
anything thoroughly and never applies himself 
earnestly and successfully at anything, he is there- 
fore n. g., no good for anything, not wanted any- 



72 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES.. 

where, does nothing for anybody, and nobody there- 
fore does anything for him. Still he wants things, 
and so he tries to get them in a dishonorable, in an 
unbusinesslike manner, by misrepresentation, lying, 
cheating, stealing, begging, robbing or in any old 
way, unlawfuly if necessary, — but oh, "the road of 
the transgressor is hard," — and consequently we 
find the majority of such characters most of the 
time in want, suffering, and misery ; and why ? be- 
cause they are seeking happiness in the wrong di- 
rection. They are on the wrong track. And thus 
while these misguided fools and unfortunates — 
those dishonest, mean, deceitful, unscrupulous, in- 
competent, lying characters, to whose lives we owe 
most of the trouble that is in the world — find them- 
selves as a rule sooner or later in bankruptcy, in 
prison, in hospitals, asylums or in like misery, we 
see on the other hand that the prominent places of 
responsibility, of honor and liberal remuneration 
are occupied as a rule by the men of the opposite 
type. 

"Fair Exchange Is No Robbery" Is the Foundation- 
Principle of All Sound Business-Trans- 
actions. 
Incompetent individuals are not apt, if they ever 
by accident of birth or inheritance get there, to re- 
main long at' the head of permanently successful 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 78- 

business-enterprises. It is not a mere theory, but a 
fact easily proven, that the sound fundamental prin- 
ciples of upright responsibility are the character- 
istic traits of the superior business-man, and that 
the strict observance of these Christian virtues thus 
often make the latter' s success in the attainment 
of happiness not only as regards his professional 
duties, but throughout his life. Let me repeat once 
more that exceptions do not make the rule either 
in this or in any other instance. There is no ques- . 
tion but that those who have chosen their profes- 
sions or business as suggested in the beginning of 
this chapter, experience a joy, a pleasure, a per- 
petual happiness in the daily performance of their 
occupation or profession, that is utterly lost to that 
man or woman, who toils merely in order to make 
money. Those who have chosen their life-work 
without that higher and nobler incentive to work, 
i. e., to do their share for the welfare and happiness 
of their fellow-men, slave along without this 
delightful and ennobling spirit, which acts like a 
constant stimulant to renewed efforts, and lends a 
charm to one's daily duties that cannot well be pro- 
cured in any other way, and without which one 
cannot well reach the highest success and happiness 
possible. Thus the honorable man through meri- 
torious deeds of righteousness, of honor, of justice, 
not only wins the respect and gratefulness of his 



74 sensible; and successful business principles. 

fellowmen, but receives from them honors in re- 
turn; likewise he who benefits others in a material 
sense, receives material wealth in 'return, money 
being merely the means of exchange for services 
rendered. On the other hand, if anyone, as a rare 
exception to the rule, should perhaps scheme some- 
time successfully to reap where he does not sow, 
he yet can never enjoy full happiness, both on ac- 
count of being haunted by the realization that he 
is not really deserving, as on account of fear of 
dishonor coming to him upon being perhaps at any 
time unmasked as a swindler, and for fear of 
dreaded punishment which will overtake him sooner 
or later as a matter of probability, if not necessity. 

The Foundation-Principle of Civilization Versus 
Barbarism. 
According to Blackstone, the eminent authority 
on law, the beginning of civilized commerce was 
accomplished when the first law was enacted, i. e., 
when a couple of savages who had hitherto been 
hostile to each other, managed to come to an agree- 
ment, not to seek to harm each other any further 
by endangering each other's lives and belongings, 
but from henceforth to rather help each other by 
friendly intercourse. This idea being the origin 
of all civilization, — and as any law in order to 
work successfully requires immediately a second 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 75 

law to determine what shall be done with any 
transgressor of said law, — thus also were estab- 
lished laws of punishment for those who would 
transgress the laws of peaceful intercourse. In 
time finally communities were organized, and labor 
was divided among the people of such tribes or 
colonies, so that some individuals would devote 
themselves to building dwellings, others to do the 
farming, others to do the hunting, others to make 
the clothing, etc., etc. And what was the ultimate 
object of all these changed arrangements? Only 
this of course : To increase the welfare and hap- 
piness of these people. Therefore let us bear in 
mind, that a people can succeed in attaining that 
ultimate object only just in proportion as they will 
thus not work merely for themselves, but for the 
benefit of others, i. e., for the benefit of the whole 
community. Thus we see plainly the main point of 
difference betwen barbarism and civilization, namely 
that the barbarian seeks to benefit only himself and 
does nothing to benefit his neighbor, while the idea 
of civilization condemns this principle as harmful 
to the highest possible enjoyment of life and ruin- 
ous to the people's happiness, and advocates instead 
in the beautiful words of wisdom and goodwill to 
all, — the principle: "Love thy neighbor as thyself/' 
which is to be observed in words as well as in deeds. 
And so it is self-evident and needs no further com- 



76 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

merit to show, that just exactly in proportion as an 
individual, community, nation is acting more or 
less according to the first or second principle stated, 
do we find such to be a barbarian or civilized in- 
dividual, community or nation, and the degree of 
happiness each attains is consequently proportion- 
ate. This can readily be seen, for instance by pic- 
turing life in a community, where the judge (ir- 
respective of right) is sentencing those not bribing 
him, where the minister (irrespective of right) is 
preaching morals to suit those who pay him most, 
where the teacher (irrespective of right) is neglect- 
ing those entrusted to his care whose parents pay 
him least, where the physician in order to keep busy 
does his best to spread instead of checking disease, 
where the merchant sells goods which he can make 
a big profit on, irrespective of whether these goods 
be worthless or not, where the city-fathers (irres- 
pective of the welfare of the people) issue licen- 
ses for anything and to anybody so long as the 
latter pays a good price for such privileges, where 
no one can trust the other, where everybody is so 
smart as to aim for the highest possible happiness 
in a manner which a little common-sense and inves- 
tigation proves brings the greatest misery. Ohf 
God, save us from such an existence among wolves 
in sheeps' clothing, from a life in a land of bar- 
barians, wearing the cloak of civilization; there 



SENSIBI,£ AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 77 

are tlwo kinds of hell on earth, this is one, war is 
the other. Now take a look at the other community, 
where on the contrary the opposite condition to that 
just described, is plainly evident all around you,, 
namely: Equal justice to all, special privileges to 
none, governed by conscientious men of ability and 
of noble character, the business-interests in the 
hands of persons of integrity and honesty, where 
the ministers are God-fearing men, alive with the 
true Christian spirit, preaching tolerance and ad- 
vanced common-sense ideas of morality and religion 
and truth, where competent physicians and san- 
itary conditions assure continued health, the 
ravages of contagious diseases being pro- 
portionately unknown there, where the educa- 
tion of the young is in the hands of men and 
women of superior intelligence and responsibility, 
in other words : where there is being practised in 
daily life the doctrine of Christianity: "Do unto 
others, as you would have others do unto you/' 
If life in the first described community is genuine 
misery (hell) — life in the latter community by com- 
parison might perhaps not unjustly be called: true 
happiness (Heaven). So it seems left largely to us 
what we make of this mother earth. . What shall it 
be? Remember that you and I are much like the 
other fellow, and so the actual result of what the 
world is and is to be, is determined by the daily 



78 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

doings of just such as you and I perhaps as much 
as by the actions of anyone. 

Money and Its' Influence on Happiness . 

While the statement: "Money is the root of all 
evil" is evidently an exaggerated one, so the idea 
that all things can be measured from the money- 
standpoint is wrong in the other extreme, though 
we still hear occasionally the foolish remark, "With 
money you can buy everything/' But we are not 
apt to hear this remark from the very rich, who have 
had some experience in this direction. A million- 
aire, who is a so-called 'self-made' man, recently 
said to the author: "As a young man, when 
I was very poor, I used to live as thousands of 
other poor people do, namely with this predom- 
inant desire: "to get plenty of money," for I rea- 
soned to himself : 'Then I will be happy indeed, as 
then I can have almost anything I want/ Now, that 
I am rich — now, that I have all the money I wished 
for — I see, that my reasoning was faulty. For I 
have found that the most precious things of this 
world are the very ones that cannot be bought 
with money. How much is a mother's love worth? 
How much a father's? True, many a woman can 
be secured as a wife, who would not marry you if 
you were poor. So, then envy the poor, for verily 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 79 

the woman who marries you for your money, will 
make you a bad wife; the rich are surrounded by 
that sneaky, snakey crowd of false friends, who 
flatter and pretend friendship while they are only 
plotting perhaps and waiting for a chance to rob 
you, but the poor man need fear no such troubles. 
How much money does it take to be able to tell the 
rascal from the true friend, how much to win the 
real unblemished, genuine love of the child who has 
turned away from its home, how much to regain the 
lost affection of a wife, the forgiveness of a mother, 
how much to bring back to your home the drunkard 
son, the wayward daughter, how much does it cost 
to make them as they were before they brought dis- 
grace upon you and themselves? Name all the 
lovely affections of the human heart and the sweet 
virtues that make life worth living, and state the 
price for each, so I can buy them. Can you do it? 
Hush up, poor mortal fool. How much money will 
restore lost health, for how much can I buy a hand- 
some face, a fine physique, the vigour of youth, new 
eyes, new hearing, a new stomach? How much 
money will restore the sound mind to the insane, 
how much silver coin does it need to bring the dead 
to life again, how much gold will calm and give 
peace and rest to the troubled mind and the awe- 
stricken conscience? And how much does it cost 
for a peep into eternity? Ah, when I was poor, I 



80 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

used to envy the rich, seeing them surrounded by 
luxuries and beauty, at tables loaded with all the 
delicacies for eating and drinking that the market 
provides and the appetite can wish for; now, be- 
lieve me, I begin to understand the wisdom of the 
Bible words, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat thy bread;" for it is the laboring man with his 
dinner-pail in his lap who plainly shows greater 
enjoyment over his meal, than I have ever seen 
demonstrated at the most gorgeously rigged-up 
dining-table of the wealthiest." The possession of 
great riches brings with it responsibilities, tempta- 
tions and other dangers which the average individ- 
ual has no conception of, because he does not ex- 
perience them ; so too some of the very rich have no 
idea of the trials and sufferings of the very poor. 
'Extremes meet' is an old saying referring also to 
this case, for extreme wealth is a danger to a com- 
munity the same as is extreme poverty. True hap- 
piness is more apt to be found with families in 
moderately comfortable circumstances. Money is 
of real value to happiness only as far as it is neces- 
sary to satisfy our actual wants, beyond that with 
its dangers, responsibilities, temptations it may 
prove a greater hinderance than help to continued 
happiness. It is undoubtedly in accordance with 
this fact, that the masterful judge of human nature: 
Goethe, said, "Only he truly enjoys life and liberty, 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 81 

who daily must labor for it," while often elsewhere 
too and in the Bible also we find frequent allusions 
to this circumstance. It can thus be well compre- 
hended that many millionaires realizing this, have 
learned tEat of the numerous ways of managing 
their wealth, there are wiser and nobler ideas to be 
carried into execution, than are found in egotistical 
self-indulgence. In business-methods as in all 
things the standard may be either high or low. J. 
J. Rousseau has well said: ''Nothing on earth is 
unchangeable; everything has its growth and its 
decay." Therefore, whatever calling you enter 
upon, aim at a high standard and bring to the work 
an unwavering constancy. It will increase your 
happiness. Yet do not aim too high ; do not attempt 
the impossible, for such an attempt could be of no 
benefit to anyone, and would only cause you dis- 
appointment. 

Labor-unions; Their Benefits to Happiness, and 
Their Dangers 

"In unison there is strength," is a true and well- 
known remark, which in the case of labor-unions 
is proven to be no exception to the rule, and if 
conducted in an orderly, conscientious, business- 
like manner, they are of decided benefit not only to 
the employees in all branches of labor, but also to 



82 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES* 

the employers and to the community, the nation, 
the world at large. How beneficial and how neces- 
sary in our day they are proving themselves to be 
for the laboring man, is best shown by the fact that 
their strength and influence have developed rapidly 
and are constantly increasing, and how helpful too 
they are to the employer, i. e., to the conscientious 
employer, may be seen from this circumstance, that 
the latter need not fear so much any more the com- 
petition of the unscrupulous employer, who — if he 
could — would cut the employees' wages to a mere 
pittance, thus enabling him to undersell and pos- 
sibly financially ruin those employers who would 
pay their employees decent wages, sufficient to 
enable them to live with their families, as God in- 
tended that they should. It is further evident that 
this modern system, like any system which helps 
satisfactorily to regulate the intercourse between 
labor and capital, must of necessity prove to be 
beneficial to the community, the nation and the 
world at large. 

All these benefits are however cruelly demolished, 
causing no end of trouble and misery to labor as 
well as capital, when such unions attempt to dic- 
tate to employers in an offensive, domineering man- 
ner and demand concessions of the latter, which 
they for good reasons are unable to grant. 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 83 

Superior Business Standards Are the Result of 
Superior Education. 

Education is the most important factor in develop- 
ing a high standard in business-matters as in every- 
thing else. The educated man, the man of intelli- 
gence, the conscientious man, being so superior to 
the uneducated, arrogant, conceited brute in every 
respect, the former must of necessity have alto- 
gether different ideas regarding business-matters, 
and consequently a proportionately superior stand- 
ard, while the latter's narrow views of life and men, 
his mental inferiority and his exceeding egotism do 
not fit him to be entrusted with great responsibilities 
such as a large capital represents. As a brutal person 
is generally unsafe to have around, and as money is 
apt to appeal to his vicious passions with particular 
force, a country is in a sad plight where such in- 
dividuals are given a chance to handle the business- 
interests of the people. The most dangerous and 
most harmful of all aristocracies in the world there- 
fore consists of just such individuals, people who 
are esteemed not for what they — are, but for what 
they — have, i. e., the money-aristocracy. Why? Be- 
cause such a society represents all the vices of an 
aristocracy without its redeeming virtues. The 
proof of the ruinous influence of a money-aristoc- 
racy upon a country is found only too abundantly 



84 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

in the pages of history. Fortunately not all persons 
of large wealth are altogether egotistical and de- 
void of a higher sense of responsibility toward their 
fellowmen. While there are some big concerns who 
are seemingly forever at war with their employees, 
as is shown by frequent strikes, etc., there are also 
others who on the contrary demonstrate a most 
philanthropic spirit towards their employees. These 
are not only practicing, "Do unto others as you 
would have others do unto you," but are moreover 
setting one of the noblest examples regarding the 
realization that "capital is a sacred trust/' or as the 
Bible has it, that "For unto whomsoever much is 
given, of him shall much be required/' Among 
the foremost of this class of millionaire-philan- 
thropists, who are eminently successfully carrying 
out this idea in practice, we would mention the 
grand work that has already been done, and is being 
constantly carried on in a larger and larger scale, 
by Mr. Nelson O. Nelson of St. Louis. 

The System of Profit-sharing Liable to Solve All 
Difficulties Between Labor and Capital. 

Mr. Nelson is one of the fathers of profit-sharing 
in this country, and during the entire period in 
which he has been the head of the N. O. Nelson 
Manufacturing Company, he has not encountered 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 85 

a single strike or labor-disturbance of any kind. 
Andrew Carnegie has founded libraries (the Home- 
stead-Strike too is still in the memory of the peo- 
ple) ; Peter Cooper,Stephen Girard,Leland Stanford 
devoted their wealth to educational purposes ; Baron 
de Hirsch and George Peobody devoted their chari- 
ties to more ameliorative ends; but it remained for 
N. O. Nelson to bring philanthropy into the hard 
and supposedly soul-less business-world. If Nel- 
son were an ordinary man, he would to-day be 
several times a millionaire. But he will not be ''dis- 
graced by dying rich," which was the fiat laid down 
in Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of wealth." Nelson 
owes this to his magnificient charities. Besides be- 
ing the founder of the communal town of Le Claire, 
111., where some of his factories are located and 
where many of his employees live, Mr. Nelson is 
also the head of the company which bears his name, 
doing an annual business on the profit-sharing basis 
approximated at some $3,000,000, and employing 
about 600 men. Robert Hunter, well-known as an 
authority on social and economic conditions, re- 
cently stated, "Employers may be divided into three 
classes. There is that class, which apparently holds 
that the working man is able to earn his daily 
pittance solely through the kindness and generos- 
ity of themselves. These laugh to scorn the idea 
that anyone but they have rights which are bound 



86 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

to be respected. It is this class which is largely 
responsible for labor-troubles. The second division, 
I should say, is composed of those employers who, 
while willing to allow their men what they call a 
'square deal/ nevertheless believe in 'divinely com- 
missioned' class-distinctions, and, while they are 
willing to give labor a degree of credit for what it 
accomplishes, are convinced that it should be kept 
in its proper place, although they never are quite 
sure where that is, beyond a general belief that it is 
'somewhere at the bottom of the heap.' The third 
class — all too rare — realize the fact that it is labor 
which produces their profits, and are not afraid 
to show an open recognition. Under such auspices 
the profit-sharing business has attained most favor- 
able results/' — The objection raised by some em- 
ployers against the profit-sharing business, is: "I 
see no justice in my sharing my profits with any- 
one who will not share my responsibilities nor either 
my losses." 

President Roosevelt on "Ideals in Business Life" 
and "Uses of Great Wealth/' 

Here are a few quotations from a speech re- 
garding this subject by President Roosevelt : "It is 
a good thing to have extraordinary material pros- 
perity, if we use this material prosperity aright. 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 87 

It is not a good thing — it is a bad thing — if we treat 
it as the be-all and end-all of our life. If we make 
it the only ideal, if we permit the people to get be- 
fore their minds the view that material well-being 
carried to an ever higher degree is the one and only 
thing to be striven for, we are laying up for our- 
selves not merely trouble, but ruin. I feel the faith 
and hope that we shall not permit mere material 
well-being to become the only ideal, also because I 
believe that more and more we shall accustom our- 
selves to looking at the great fortunes accumulated 
by certain men, as being nothing in themselves 
either to admire, to envy or deplore, save as they are 
used well or ill. If the man who has accumulated a 
great fortune, uses it ill or does not use it well, 
then so far from being an object of envy, still less 
an object of admiration, he should take his place 
among those whom we condemn and pity, for 
usually if we have the root of the matter in us, we 
will pity those we condemn. If he uses it aright, 
then he is entitled to our admiration, our respect, 
exactly as every man is entitled to it, if he has 
special talents, and uses these special talents for the 
welfare of the people as a whole, for the uplifting 
of mankind." — 



88 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

Lack and Excess of Ambition Equally Disastrous 
to Happiness. 

As moderation in all things is beneficial to the 
attainment of happiness, so it is also in regard to 
ambition. Entire lack of ambition is as deplorable 
as is excess of ambition. Without some ambition 
no-one can be expected to do much of anything to 
further either his own or anybody else's happiness, 
while excessive ambition has caused not only end- 
less misery, but the ruin and death of millions of 
human lives. Pages of the world's history give 
ample proof of this statement. Napoleon I (the 
Great?!) devastated, in order to satisfy an insane 
ambition, half of Europe, caused the slaughter of 
hundred-thousands who died as victims to his wild 
cravings for greatness, brought untold misery to 
formerly happy homes, and himself ended a 
wretched life imprisoned like a savage on a lone 
isolated island. What a life, what a death! Bis- 
mark, the iron-chancellor, spent the evening of his 
life in harassing self-accusation, was in his last 
days on earth perpetually tortured by the most bitter 
remorse for the sufferings he had caused and for 
valueless efforts of self-glorification wasted; these 
thoughts made him look with sorrow T and regret 
over the past, caused him sleepless nights and fear 
and trembling in awaiting the future. Oh, for the 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 89 

disappointments of the over-ambitious ! Oh, for 
their never-ending anxiety, their struggles to reach 
fame, and for the remorse their cruel deeds have 
caused them in the end ! When we bear in mind, 
that so much of their suffering has come to light in 
spite of the efforts to keep it from becoming known, 
which efforts no doubt succeeded in many cases, we 
may be able easily to find a fairly correct answer to 
the question: "Is excessive ambition apt to bring 
much real happiness and contentment?" 

Let us rather try to be content with what we have, 
than everlastingly and restlessly seek — like Napo- 
leon — "for new worlds to conquer." The foolish- 
ness of it ! Let us endeavor rather to fill to the best 
of our ability the place, be it ever so humble, to 
which we have been called. Let each one do his 
part well, as thereby the individual as well as the 
whole community will be materially benefited. Let 
the master be the master, and a good one; and let 
the employee be a good employee, rather than try 
to dictate and make a poor master. These things 
should be well considered, as they are important in 
all business-enterprises and indeed in all work where 
several have to unite in order to accomplish it suc- 
cessfully. It is such foolishness on the part of some 
persons, instead of attending to their own affairs, to 
be forever telling everybody else what to do and 
how to do it, and how this and that was done wrong, 



90 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

while they never accomplish anything themselves. 
It is a principle much more apt to lead to content- 
ment, independence, and happiness for a person to 
attend to his own business to the best of his ability, 
and to leave others alone in attending to theirs. 

A Suggestion from the Droll "Buster Brown." 

Referring to dishonesty in business-matters, 
'Buster Brown' in his quaint way has this to say: 
"Why do burglars burgle? Don't they know, that 
honesty is the best policy-game? But you can't 
help the poor chap who doesn't know he needs help. 
He is a believer in luck, and is waiting for the fool- 
killer." 

Rules of the Founder of the Great Banking House 
of Rothschild. 

The following twelve plain business-principles 
are those that the founder of the great banking- 
house of Rothschild formulated and bequeathed to 
his children. They read as follows : 

i. Carefully examine every detail of your 
business. 

2. Be prompt in everything. 

3. Take time to consider, but decide positively. 

4. Dare to go forward. 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 91 

5. Bear troubles patiently. 

6. Be brave in the struggle of life. 

7. Maintain your integrity as a sacred thing. 

8. Never tell business-lies. 

9. Make no useless acquaintances. 

10. Pay your debts promptly. 

11. Employ your time well and work hard. 

12. Do not reckon on chance. 

Benjamin Franklin's Twelve Rules. 

The twelve life- and home-rules of Benjamin 
Franklin, which he declares in his Autobiography 
to have been of material benefit to him in his suc- 
cessful and happy life, represent a high standard 
for the conduct of life as well as of business. They 
will be found stated in full in Chapter V. 

The Miser and the Spendthrift 

As moderation is conducive to happiness in all 
cases, and vice versa as extremes bring misery at 
all times, so we have as regards business-principles 
this truth also illustrated in the person of: the mi- 
ser and the spend-thrift. Some-one has said: "To 
be the happiest person in life as far as money is 
concerned, is to observe the rule that for every ten 
dollars of your income, you may allow yourself nine 



92 SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 

dollars of expenditure ; and to be the most miserable 
person in life as far as money is concerned, is to ob- 
serve the rule that for every ten dolars of income, 
you may allow yourself eleven dollars of expendi- 
ture/' 

Another Business-Man's Business-Principles-. 

a The way to get credit is to be punctual in pay- 
ing your bills. The way to preserve it, is not 
to use it much. Settle often; have short accounts. 
Trust no man's appearances — they are deceptive — ■ 
perhaps assumed for the purpose of obtaining credit. 
Beware of gaudy exterior. Rogues usually dress 
well. The honest are more apt to dress plainly. 
Never trust him who flies into a passion on being 
dunned; make him pay quickly, if there be any 
virtue in the law. Be well satisfied before you give 
a credit, that those to whom you give it, are safe 
men to be trusted. Sell your goods at a small ad- 
vance, and never misrepresent them, for those whom 
you once deceive will be aware of you the second 
time. 

Deal uprightly with all men, and they will 
repose confidence in you, and soon become your 
permanent customers. Beware of him who is an 
office-seeker. Men do not usually want an office 
when they have anything to do. A man's affairs are 



SENSIBLE AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. 93 

rather low when he seeks office for support. Trust 
no stranger. Your goods are better than doubtful 
charges. What is character worth, if you make it 
cheap by crediting everybody? Agree beforehand 
with every man about to do a job, and if large put 
it into writing. If any decline this, quit or be 
cheated. Though you want a job ever so much, 
make all sure at the onset, and in a case at all doubt- 
ful, make sure of a guarantee. Be not afraid to ask 
it, which is the best test of responsibility, for if 
offence be taken, you have escaped a loss." 




^$J&J&J&J&J&J&J&J&>$ 



CHAPTER IV. 

Sound Religious Principles Based on 
Facts. 

Of Benefit to AIL With Prejudice to None. 

When the intelligent man or woman have done 
their best for the attainment of happiness for them- 
selves and those about them as regards the present 
life, they cannot as yet enjoy the same to the fullest 
extent, if they have not also satisfactorily answered 
to themselves at least the most important questions 
as to the hereafter. We are told of a certain animal, 
which when the enemy approaches merely hides 
his head under the wing, and thus not seeing the 
danger, believes that there is none and that it is 
consequently perfectly safe. The poor thing! 
Would we call such a proceeding wise, and the best 
plan to be pursued? Would it not seem strange, if 
a human being would adopt such a course ? Could 
such an individual be called truly intelligent? Yet 
do we not hear some people remark : "In ignorance 

94 



SOUND RElylGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 95 

there is bliss" — which saying would imply that the 
above bird is to be envied for its blissful ignorance, 
probably because thereby the enemy is enabled to 
capture and kill the blissful creature with the least 
difficulty ?! I do not suppose that we can conscien- 
tiously recommend this bird's principles to 
our readers as a proceeding conducive to 
much happiness. As for me, I am much 
obliged for such "blissful belief;" I want 
none of it, thank you. And what is more, I want 
to be sure that I see especially clearly, when any- 
one is around advocating such a principle. I 
wouldn't trust such advisers of blissful beliefs or 
ignorance at any time, for there are some facts we 
know full well, and I would rather be guided by 
facts than "blissful beliefs" at all times; some of 
these facts I refer to, is first that "None are so 
blind, as those who do not wish to see," and another 
is to be found in the genuine benefit to be derived 
from following the advice of the Bible : "Come, let 
us reason together." 

Happiness Increased by Sound Religious Princi- 
ples; and Vice Versa. 

Now it is utterly impossible for an intelligent 
being to find genuine comfort and happiness in try- 
ing to force himself to believe anything that is 



'96 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

antagonistic to his reasoning. On the contrary his 
joy and happiness is increased by the very opposite 
proceeding, namely it becomes greater precisely 
in proportion as he sees clearer and clearer. Per- 
sons acting in violation of this principle are the un- 
fortunate victims of a mental delusion, the danger 
of which lies in their being led to believe, not be- 
cause a candid and unprejudiced examination of all 
the facts shows the truth, but just merely because 
they would wish to have it that way. So, as an 
instance, the criminal wants no judge to punish his 
evil deeds, and so naturally he ardently wishes to 
have things that way. See how blissful is his 'be- 
lief' ? ! All he has to do is to convince himself that 
he may safely enter upon a criminal career, and to 
'believe' that he may do so without suffering any 
bad results thereby. Maybe the unlucky, misguided 
creature does not awaken from his "blissful belief 
until he finds himself in charge of the jailer, behind 
prison-bars, in the electric-chair or on the scaffold. 
How truly blissful to the poor victim has his ignor- 
ance and belief in the end proven itself to be ! 
Alas, he finally discovered his mistake — and as usu- 
ally — "too late." There is a sect which has carried 
this idea of blissful belief to such extremes, that the 
police have frequently been obliged to interfere, it 
being claimed that its teachings have caused numer- 
ous deaths and have been increasing attendance at 



SOUND REUGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 97 

insane asylums at times to an alarming extent. 
Somebody has said that if only one thing were 
changed in regard to this sect, a person would find 
there all that could possibly be expected from it, 
and no true Christian need be disappointed in ex- 
amining its teachings and pretentions. When asked 
what should be changed, he said it was the name, 
which should be "Heathen Ignorance" instead of 
"Christian Science/' Another individual who was 
called upon to explain his remark, that the persons 
calling themselves Christian Science People were 
doing one of the best things for the enlightenment 
of humanity, said: "Yes, these persons are putting 
to an actual test some of the ridiculous pretentions 
of wonderful things which have been claimed could 
be accomplished by 'belief/ Just as the remnant of 
fanaticism from heathenland, that God would some 
day literally raise the dead from their graves, was 
most effectively destroyed by the discovery that the 
coffins of the people having been dead some time, 
did not contain their bodies any more at all, but 
nothing but ashes, mere ashes — so, when some poor, 
misguided, ignorant people kept on claiming that 
this and that could be accomplished by 'belief/ these 
so-called "Christian Science People" made actual 
test-cases with the result that intelligent people 
everywhere became positively convinced that mere 
'belief accomplishes mighty little. These people are 



98 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

thus proving most effectively that the old notions 
regarding the 'power of faith/ etc., are idiotic 
exaggerations, remnants of barbarism and of the 
dark ages, driving persons following their teachings 
into mental and bodily suffering of all kind, and 
otherwise doing so much harm, that the law has 
frequently been called into service to stop all that 
nonsense." 

The light of wisdom is dawning gradually. 

As the dawning of light upon all questions that 
have perplexed the world, has come upon humanity, 
emerging from darkness, only gradually, so the 
dawning of light on religious questions. Only by 
slow degrees have we been able to distinguish facts 
from errors ; and while we see plainer now than did 
our ancestors, we do make ourselves yet a grievous 
mistake if we pretend knowledge of those things, 
of which truth compels us to admit we know as 
yet nothing about. Let us frankly and honestly 
confess that we are yet surrounded by much that is 
mysterious to us, instead of foolishly and viciously 
babbling meaningless phrases and pretentions. 
Hence we willingly say "God rules in a mysterious 
way," i. e. in a way mysterious to us. And what do 
we mean by saying that a thing is mysterious to 
us ? It is by no means an intimation of there being 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 99 

anything supernatural or awful about it, it is the 
mere acknowledgment that we do not yet under- 
stand it; and therefore as soon and in just the pro- 
portion as we do understand a subject, it ceases to 
be a mystery to us, though it may still remain myste- 
rious to others. As only through study and investi- 
gation we can get to understand what till then was a 
mystery to us — such for instance as the laws of 
chemistry, electricity, medicine, etc., — so the ques- 
tion of religion, as revealing the manifestation, 
laws and will of God, can only cease to be a mystery 
to us, when we have successfully investigated and 
studied it. An easily discouraged, impatient person 
is not apt to acquire any deep and thorough knowl- 
edge of any subject ; and if, in order to become well- 
informed in matters of scientific research we need 
to possess those certain essential qualities of the 
mind, we need them especially in regard to success- 
ful investigation of religious matters. For here 
ignorance and error have been as great, or greater, 
than in matters of doubt regarding chemistry, medi- 
cine and other questions which humanity has been 
trying to solve in the centuries gone by, and which 
we are still working at to understand better. So we 
find many persons to-day who are still "all at sea" 
regarding their religious views and principles, and 
we repeat: "None so blind, as those who do not 
wish to see." And as "God" who "rules in a mys- 



100 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

terious way," is a spirit and therefore comprehen- 
sible to us only in a spiritual way, and yet present 
to some extent in everything, therefore we must 
admit that consequently to some extent everything 
still remains more or less mysterious in spite of all 
investigations ; and in our research regarding sound 
religious principles in connection with "The Happy 
Life," let us at all times be guided by the words of 
the poet, without either prejudice or fear, whose 
advice is: 

"Seize upon truth, wherever found, 
On Christian or on heathen ground, 
Among your friends, among your foes ; 
The plant's divine, where'er it grows." 

What is the Value of Beliefs f 

The object of this chapter being merely to men- 
tion such religious principles as are apt to be of 
benefit for the happiness of ourselves as well as 
that of others, we cannot here enter upon an ex- 
tensive examination and close scrutiny of all the 
various doctrines, beliefs, etc., of the hundreds of 
religions existing in the world. Moreover as all 
'belief "on Christian or on heathen ground" is 
largely a result of imaginations, and as the certain 
knowledge of absolute facts regarding religion and 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 101 

its beneficial effect upon happiness is what we desire 
to emphasize particularly, we shall give most of our 
attention to the securing of such facts, and will 
merely for a moment examine what value 'belief 
has in the matter anyhow. Presently we shall have 
the opportunity of taking a glance at the statistics 
referring to the quantities of beliefs that during 
the past have been advocated and to those that are 
being still now propounded and as frequently con- 
tradicted ; but before doing so, let us as an illustra- 
tion take two very recently stated beliefs, and see 
if they are much different in value than all the rest 
of beliefs in the world. These two latter beliefs 
refer to conditions of animal life in the world in 
about two million years from date. Some learned 
( ?) Chicago professor recently announced to the 
world and gave ample proof for this his belief, that 
the only animals in the world at that time would be 
— birds, because this and because that and so on 
and so on. But straightway another learned ( ?) 
individual, to go the other learned ( ?) man one 
better, I suppose, stated his belief that the world in 
two million years from date would be inhabited only 
by — fishes, because this and because that and so on 
and so on. Now whether the first learned ( ?) man's 
belief or the latter's is right, or if both are wrong — 
what value can such beliefs have anyhow as far as 
their influence is concerned regarding what is 



102 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

actually going to happen? Is it necessary to ask if 
there is any intelligent being in the world who be- 
lieves that the beliefs of these two learned ( ?) be- 
lievers will have the slightest influence on what the 
Almighty Creator by His wise and neverfailing 
laws has decreed shall occur ? And suppose each of 
these two learned ( ?) believers had a hundred 
thousand or millions of followers — would that make 
any difference? — The answer of course is "No," 
and certainly "No" and "No, No, No."— Well and 
good ; and it is precisely the same with the thousand 
and one other 'beliefs' that we are told about regard- 
ing the future life, and are moreover told by each 
and everyone of its advocates, that their belief and 
theirs only is the right one, while the others are all 
wrong. Which one will you believe ? And what dif- 
ference does it make? Believe this one or that one, or 
believe that they are all more or less right, or more 
or less wrong. In the name of the living God, ttll 
me, what intelligent and conscientious person do 
you think could have the presumption to say, that 
his particular notions about the plans which the 
Great God and Almighty Creator has for the Uni- 
verse, the world and humanity, are going to exert 
the slightest influence as to what Our Lord and 
Master by His wise and never-failing laws has de- 
creed shall happen, — any more than the beliefs 
of the aforementioned two learned ( ?) professors 



SOUND REUGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS 103 

will have upon the condition of animal life in the 
world two million years from date ! It is of no use 
to bother about such bird-stories and fish-stories ! 
The trouble is we have too many fish-stories and 
beliefs of all kinds afloat in the world already, which 
are only serving to confuse the minds of the people 
regarding the true state of affairs, instead of en- 
lightening those seeking the truth and aiding them 
to increased happiness by dispelling all worriment 
and fretting and doubting about possible and im- 
possible beliefs and notions of all kinds. Evidently 
and that is sure, these beliefs are not going to 
change God's laws, intentions and plans the least 
little bit. So why all that bother and worriment 
about them, when we see that they all amount to 
nothing as regards their influence on what in reality 
is actually going to take place. 

There are other matters, matters of fact and not 
of doubt, matters of value and importance we shall 
come to presently. But before we dismiss for all 
times this much-overestimated idea regarding the 
value of 'beliefs/ a look at the following statistics 
regarding the numbers of different religious be- 
lievers in the world, whose beliefs are all more or 
less opposed to each other, will "as facts speak 
plainer than words" show plainer yet that it is the 
height of folly to put much stock in so-called 
"beliefs" to secure satisfaction and happiness re- 



104 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

garding our religious principles or in regard to 
our prospects in the hereafter. The statistics are 
self-explanatory; they prove, that to: 
about 500 million people in the world professing 

Christianity, there are 
about 300 million people in the world, professing 

Worship of Ancestors and Confucianism; 
about 200 million people in the world professing 

Hindooism; 
about 180 million people in the world, professing 

Mohammedanism ; 
about 150 million people in the world professing 

Buddhism ; 
about 125 million people in the world professing 

Polytheism ; 
about 45 million people in the world professing 

Taoism ; 
about 15 million people in the world professing 

Shintoism ; 
about 8 million people in the world professing 

Judaism. 
Thus we have to about 500 million Christians : 
1,020 million Non-Christian people. As these latter 
differ vastly in their beliefs not only from the 
Christians, but also among themselves, they are 
accordingly therefore again divided and subdivided 
into various sects, — isms, beliefs, creeds, denomina- 
tions, etc., etc. And while the 500,000,000 Chris- 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON PACTS. 105 

tian people in reference to the beliefs of all of these 
1,020,000,000 Non-Christian people believe, that 
all and everyone of the latter are entirely wrong 
and positively terrible, etc., in their beliefs, — they 
themselves differ again among themselves, as we 
know, very widely in what they believe, and are 
thus again further divided and subdivided into 
various sects, isms, beliefs, creeds, denominations, 
etc., etc. Of these various sects and denominations, 
in consequence of whose numerous different beliefs 
the Christians are so much divided up also among 
themselves, we herewith mention a few, as follows : 
Evangelical Adventists, Advent Christians, Sev- 
enth-day Adventists, Church of God, Life and Ad- 
vent-Union, Church of God in Christ Jesus, Regular 
Baptists, Six Principles Baptists, Seventh-day 
Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Original Freewill 
Baptists, General Baptists, United Baptists, Sepa- 
rate Baptists, Baptist Church of Christ, Primitive 
Baptists, Old Two Seed Baptists in the Spirit Pre- 
destinarians, Brethren in Christ, Yorker Brethren, 
United Zion's Children, Plymouth Brethren (4 dif- 
ferent sects), Roman Catholics, Greek Catholics, 
Russian Orthodox Catholics, Greek Orthodox 
Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Old Catholics, Re- 
formed Catholics, Christadelphians, Christian 
Church, Christian Scientists, Christian Union, 
Church of God (Winnebrenarian), Church Tri- 



106 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

umphant (Schweinfurth), Church of the New Jeru- 
salem, Shakers, Separatists, Altruists, Congrega- 
tionalists, Disciples of Christ, Dunkards (4 different 
sects), Protestant Episcopalians, Reformed Episco- 
palians, Orthodox Friends, Hicksite Friends, Wil- 
burite Friends, Primitive Friends, Latter-Day 
Saints (2 different sects), Lutherans (with num- 
bers of sub-divisions), Apostolic Memonites, Amish 
Memonites, Reformed Memonites, Defenceless 
Memonites, Methodist Episcopalians, Methodist 
Protestants, Free Methodists, Independent Metho- 
dists, Cumberland Presbyterians, Welsh Calvinist 
Methodists, United Presbyterians, Reformed Pres- 
byterians, The Reformed Church, Christian Re- 
formed, Salvation Army, Schwenkelfeldians, Social 
Brethren, Spiritualists, United Brethren in Christ, 
Unitarians, Waldenstromians, etc., etc. 

Glancing over this list, which is not by any means 
entirely complete, it is self-evident to any intelligent 
person, that we cannot truthfully and reasonably 
entertain any longer such an absurd idea as that 
the question of belief will determine humanity's 
prospect for a happy hereafter. Think of the cruel 
and wicked blasphemy such an idea implies ! ! Think 
of it ! ! It implies that the souls of millions upon 
millions of people have been condemned by God 
and will yet be condemned by the Great Father in 
Heaven for nothing, but merely because they had 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 107 

been taught wrong 'beliefs'; that is all; it doomed 
their fate as regards eternity ! ! Think of this 
idiocy, this remnant of barbarian foolishness ! ! 

And after examining the above-mentioned state- 
ments and statistics, is it any wonder that we find — 
as previously spoken of — so many persons, who are 
still "all at sea" regarding their religious views, and 
principles ; and let us add too, that not all of these 
belong by any means to that class, of "blind per- 
sons, who do not wish to see/' Many of them are of 
that class, who have been misled and have con- 
sequently been bothered everlastingly about "beliefs" 
of all sorts and kinds, instead of taking facts as 
their guide. Hence above statistics and statements 
prove — and this they do indeed as abundantly as 
only facts can prove — that beliefs are not only of 
no value as regards their influence upon what is 
actually going to happen, but that they are utterly 
unreliable (being based on hearsay, fancy, imagina- 
tion, etc.) as to be a worse than useless guide to go 
by, and are doing more to confuse a person than 
to afford a clearer vision, for as we have seen : they 
are contradicting each other to an almost incredible 
and ridiculous extent. This reminds us of the old 
saying, that it is but one step from the sublime to 
the ridiculous ; and when Pulitzer exclaims : "How 
God must laugh at all our little creeds," he no doubt 
arrived at this idea through realization of the al- 



108 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

most incredible confusion that prevails among 
the thousand and one creeds, denominations, be- 
liefs, etc., etc., each in humorous solemnity claim- 
ing to know it all and persistently vowing that all 
others are wrong. So it was Shakespeare who said : 
"What fools we mortals be !" while Lincoln is men- 
tioned as the author of : "You may fool some of the 
people all the time, and all the people some of the 
time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." 

David Livingston narrates how he once talked 
about the Christian belief, that all the unredeemed 
are lost forever, to an African chief, Sechele by 
name, when the latter interrupted him, saying: 
"Since it is true that all who die unforgiven are 
lost forever, why did your nation not come to tell 
us of it before now? My ancestors of these past 
thousand years are all gone, and none of them heard 
anything of what you tell me. How is this?" 

Another chief to whom he had been talking about 
the God in heaven and the last judgment-day, 
answered him as follows : "What you say about 
your God in heaven and how he will judge you 
white people may no doubt be all right, but it does 
not refer to us Africans, for you say that you white 
people go up into heaven when you die, but we 
people when we die, go clown into the ground, that 
I know positively." Ferdinand Magellan narrates 
that an Indian chief, whom a missionary had been 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPPES BASED ON FACTS. 109 

telling about the God of the Christians, expressed 
great surprise, saying that he and his people, judg- 
ing from the anxiety with which the white people 
that had come to them, always first and all the time, 
inquired for the gold he had and where more gold 
could be found, and seeing the delight of the white 
people in getting it, and their willingness to part 
with anything in exchange for gold, the Indians had 
come to the firm conclusion, that gold was the God 
the white people worshipped." 

An unprejudiced and fearless research having 
now positively proven to us without the shadow 
of a doubt: this fact, that by following the road 
marked "belief," we are on the wrong track to 
secure comfort, peace and happiness of mind from 
religious principles, we now therefore gladly leave 
this question of beliefs for "good" and for all times. 
Instead we will take a better road, i. e., the road 
which is based and built on solid and positive facts 
and not on fiction, fancy and imagination, the road 
we have chosen to go by at all times and especially 
whenever we desire to know the real truth and 
nothing but the truth. And the truth which we 
want to ascertain here first and above all — as pos- 
itively and as exactly as it is possible, according to 
facts and according to facts only, without prejudice 
and without fear — is in regard to the following 
weighty questions, and let us approach them with 



110 SOUND RKIylGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

that due reverence and modest humility with which 
civilized Christians should treat such matters at 
all times, first: "Is there a God?" second: "What 
do we know about Him?" and third: "What are 
His laws and what is our destiny?" 

"Is There a Godf" 

I appeal to any man of reason to answer this: 
Was there ever produced by mere chance a compli- 
cated work, in which a great variety of parts act 
together harmoniously according to a regular and 
orderly disposition? And even supposing that such 
an unheard-of occurrence should accidentally have 
taken place once, if it should re-occur at regular 
intervals in millions of instances, and not fail in any- 
one — could that still be a matter of chance ? How 
often would a person, after he had thrown a lot of 
letters of the alphabet into a bag, have to fling them 
out upon the ground, before they would by chance 
fall into a poem? yea, or so much as make an in- 
telligent discourse in prose? And, if it is folly to 
presume that such comparatively ordinary matters 
could be done by chance, what will we say of the 
man, who pretends that the great volume of the 
world was created, and in its wonderful complex 
workings is being manipulated by chance? In the 
Bible we find the reply : "The fool saith in his heart, 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. Ill 

there is no God." How long would a person have 
to continue sprinkling colors thoughtlessly and care- 
lessly upon a canvas, before by chance they would 
represent the exact likeness of a man? And is the 
real man, the living man easier made by chance than 
his picture? How long might twenty thousand 
blind men, sent out from several remote parts of 
the world, have to wander about before by chance 
they would all meet in rank and file of an army at 
one certain place, say in front of the Capitol Build- 
ing in Washington, D. C. ? Is there the remotest 
probability that they would ever all meet by chance 
at any one place? And yet this is much more 
easily imagined^ than that the innumerable blind 
parts of matter should by chance have shaped them- 
selves into a world, into a universe. What would 
you think of a man who would advance the opinion; 
that all the houses in existence (with its windows, 
its various rooms, doors, chimneys, etc., etc.) are 
there merely by chance, that they never were con- 
trived or built by any plan or forethought, but that 
the stones or bricks or boards they are made of, 
just by chance happened to fall that way? How will 
you reason with such an individual? And more 
difficult yet, how will you reason with anyone so 
blind as to claim, that the grand firmament of the 
globes, stars and worlds which float about in the 
universe in untold millions, is there with all these 



112 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

brilliantly shining heavenly bodies — just hy mere 
chance and that these innumerable stars and worlds 
move hither and thither according to a regular sys- 
tem just by — mere chance? Is it not a fact that the 
vastness of this grand firmament is altogether too 
enormous and overpowering for us poor mortals 
to form any real conception of, so that we look 
up to it in the calmness of the silent night with a 
feeling of wondrous admiration and strange long- 
ing! In astronomy, as elsewhere when we turn 
our attention to nature's operation on a large scale, 
we realize our shortsightedness. So man is only 
acquainted with a strictly limited portion of the 
vastness of the heavens, and beyond that our knowl- 
edge of the starry universe comes to an end. Even 
with the aid of the most powerful instruments, no 
human eye has ever been able to penetrate but to 
a limited distance. All operations beyond that line 
are kept from our view by that heavy veil of Isis 
which man's limited senses and his restricted in- 
tellectual powers cannot lift. And in all scientific 
as religious investigations, it raises us in the scale 
of thinking beings to see clearly where our knowl- 
edge ends, and to admit so frankly and honestly. 
Yet astronomy proves without the shadow of a 
doubt that it is ruled by fixed laws, so that the 
reappearance, for instance, of certain stars is now 
foretold years ahead by astronomers to occur on a 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 113 

certain day or night. Is it then possible that this 
firmament is there with all its moons, meteors, etc., 
by mere chance, and that these stars and worlds 
move hither and thither, too, by mere chance and 
without any plan or forethought"? But the fool 
saith in his heart, "There is no God." And sure it 
is thus true that the poor fool steps in where angels 
fear to tread. Not one of even the most ordinarily 
intelligent beings, we might suppose, could in view- 
ing the grandeur and wonders of Creation, fail to 
realize that back of it all can be traced the foot- 
steps of that wisdom "which surpasseth all under- 
standing," a power which is so great, and having 
reigned for ever and for ever, so as to be called 
the Everlasting, the Omnipotent, to whom a thou- 
sand years are but as the twinkling of an eye — the 
flight of a moment, — whose works are so mighty, 
that the most learned scientists, the closer they 
study and penetrate into the secret laws of His 
wondrous creations, — the better they realize how in- 
significant are by comparison their own little minds, 
how utterly impossible it is for weak mortal man to 
grasp His wisdom, His plans, His intentions, — 
much less to judge them, God forbid ! The highest 
knowledge the wisest of the wisest among us can 
achieve is the conviction that He can be traced in 
all things that are, that He is all around us and all 
about us, that He is penetrating with His omnipo- 



114 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

tence all matter, that His laws are inflexible and 
infallible, never-failing, governing all things, ma- 
terial as well as spiritual. As regards the idea of 
poor mortal man coming so close to Him as we 
come face to face with our equals, would be like 
a worm being brought face to face with the vast- 
ness of the whole world. It is in this respect that 
the most able of our scientists have come to under- 
stand best of all the wisdom of the philosophy 
taught by the great Master Jesus Christ. Conse- 
quently in reference to their realizing the presence 
of God in all things, yet unable to fathom His 
wonderful works and Being, we can read in the 
books stating the result of their researches, words 
similar to the following, written between the lines 
everywhere : "Though we have eyes, we see Him 
not, and though we have ears, we hear Him not — 
for oh, how weak and frail a thing is man, how 
delicate for instance our vision, which we would 
be apt to lose even altogether were w 7 e to look but 
just for a few minutes only straight into the sun, — 
though it is millions of miles away from us, — what 
then would be the result if we should come closer 
to this overpowering force, would we thus fathom 
it better or would it not simply mean our destruc- 
tion? Yes, though His inflexible laws and Rule of 
wisdom are revealed to us in all our investigations 
of His grand works of Creation, yet thereby too 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 115 

have we learned to realize that we are compared 
to His Omnipotence altogether too insignificant as 
to be able to even grasp and understand Him, the 
Creator: the living God." 

"Whence the wind cometh from, 
And whither it goeth, 
—Who knoweth?!" 
From the worlds and stars down to the smallest 
objects in creation such as the seed or the egg, do 
they not all proclaim His wisdom? Do we find 
no evidence of the footsteps of the Creator in 
the uncountable millions of little seeds scattered 
about in the world, each and everyone of which 
contains, invisible to the human eye, but arranged 
in perfect order and symmetry, all that is needed 
for its development into roots, leaves, flowers, 
fruits: to become the parent of millions of other 
seeds, all arranged in the same perfection of order 
and symmetry, and all governed by these same in- 
flexible laws of divine wisdom? Did it all come 
about by mere chance? And so all the millions and 
millions of little eggs created in the world each and 
every day, and each containing in its tender shell 
perfectly created and in perfect order and sym- 
metry all the secret particles needed to produce life, 
to produce the complex machinery and its thousand 
miniature parts which constitute the brain, the 
lungs, the stomach, the eyes, the feet, the legs, the 



116 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

voice, the head, the feathers, etc., etc. — are all 
these, too, brought about by mere chance, without 
a plan, without a purpose, without wisdom, without 
law and order? Verily, the deeper it is our privi- 
lege to penetrate the mysteries of creation, the more 
we are inclined to realize the almost incredible truth 
of the words: 

"Not a sparrow falleth, but its God doth know, 
Just as when His mandate lays a monarch low." 
And do not even we poor mortals make inven- 
tions and accomplish works, which by those not 
knowing about them and who are skeptically in- 
clined, are at first declared to be impossible, in- 
credible ? 

Speaking of the frivolous blasphemer, the poet- 
philosopher Goethe said : 

"Who ne'er with tears did eat his bread, 

Who never with misfortunes met, 
Who never all night mourned over the dead — 
Some Mighty Power he knows not yet." 

Second: "What Do We Know About Him?" 

Remembering that "God is a spirit," and that 
"those who worship Him must worship Him in 
spirit and in truth," we will also recall therefore 
once more these words : "Seize upon truth where'er 
found, in Christian or on heathen ground," and we 



SOUND RKUGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 117 

are at last beginning to see God aright and in all 
things. Already in the preceding pages we have 
referred to the fact that a better and more truthful 
understanding of religious questions, as revealing 
the actual manifestation, laws and will of God, has 
only come to us as a result of centuries of investiga- 
tion. Darwin declares that explorers have found 
among the most brutal tribes of wild savages some 
creatures, who being almost as low intellectually as 
wild animals, had no idea whatsoever of a God; 
and he further states that only as the primitive man 
became more enlightened did this idea dawn upon 
him. Thus in proportion as the human race 
emerged from ignorance and learned to see clearer 
in all things, so its conception and understanding 
of truth in religious matters improved. And it is 
consequently easily explicable, why in reading of 
the ancient times, we find that the most ignorant 
and uncivilized tribes, alongside of having com- 
mitted the most barbarous deeds, also had at the 
same time the crudest and most horrible ideas in 
religious matters. Every nation has had its respec- 
tive gods, and the heathen-nations worshipped as 
a rule a multiplicity of gods and demons, whose 
favor they courted by obscene and ridiculous cere- 
monies, and whose anger they endeavored to ap- 
pease by the most abominable cruelties. Most of 
the ancient nations offered human sacrifices to their 



118 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

supposed gods, which actions gradually gave way 
to the offering of only animals as sacrifices. We 
find numerous references to this condition in the 
Old Testament, which latter represents probably in 
certain respects as reliable a record as we have of 
old religious customs, though nobody can vouch 
honestly for the absolute reliability of any of the 
ancient records. For when we bear in mind that 
not only have the languages of the world con- 
stantly changed and been improved upon, so that 
the oldest languages have died out altogether with 
their times, and that the art of writing is, as the 
name implies, an art, i. e., an invention of man 
originally crude and imperfect, which it took cen- 
turies to develop, and when we recall further that 
the art of printing is comparatively speaking a very 
recent invention, and that through frequent trans- 
lations the meaning of the original texts is bound 
to have been changed more or less, then we must 
admit truthfully that it is not safe to insist too 
emphatically that the records of ancient times can 
be relied upon implicitly. And as these circum- 
stances must be borne in mind in judging all an- 
cient records, therefore if we would reason in frank- 
ness and without prejudice, these circumstances ap- 
ply of course with equal force to the books also 
of the Old Testament. As regards the New Testa- 
ment, the following historical facts present them- 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 119 

selves which are absolutely undeniable. First: We 
have no proof whatsoever that there ever existed 
any original writings of the Apostles ; if there ever 
were any, they have long since perished, for the 
fact is "there are none in existence now." Second : 
In the times when Christ and the Apostles lived, 
the writing in use was exceedingly primitive, con- 
sisting of large letters standing distinct from each 
other, and punctuation being then still unknown, all 
writing was done without punctuation, which makes 
an attempt at accurate understanding of the text a 
source of great difficulty. Third: This writing 
in those days was done on papyrus, which was made 
by gluing together layers of the rind under the 
bark of the papyrus plant, and then pounding or 
rolling them into a convenient thickness. This sub- 
stance was by no means durable, and exposure to 
the atmosphere caused its sure and speedy destruc- 
tion. Fourth : It was not until some 400 years after 
Christ that more durable writing material was in- 
vented. The result is, that the most ancient manu- 
script known to exist in the world to-day, is sup- 
posed to have been written in the fifth century, 
though all that is known positively about its his- 
tory is that it was sent by the Patriarch of Constan- 
tinople to Charles I. of England in the year 1628. 
From the years previous to that century no original 
record has reached us, and there are exceedingly 



120 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

few manuscripts in the world that are known to 
date as far back as the loth Century. On learn- 
ing these facts, the question naturally presents 
itself: "What assurance have we that these lat- 
ter versions, which appeared so long after the 
supposed originals were written, are really correct 
copies of those earlier accounts?" Fifth: It is 
evident that great liability to error should exist in 
any system where copying by hand is the only 
method for multiplying books; so much more cer- 
tain is it that errors and misinterpretations should 
arise in copying writings without punctuation and 
otherwise primitive, such as were made at the time 
of the Apostles. Sixth: The copying of writings 
(manuscripts) was chiefly done in those days by 
professional scribes ; at a later day by monks. Even 
the ink of our days will fade in time, and where 
the inferior ink of those days had faded on these 
old manuscripts, the scribes had to retrace it as 
best they could. In some cases an ambitious scribe 
would substitute his own utterances, good, bad or 
indifferent as they chanced to be. Seventh : As up 
to the time of the Reformation the Christian 
Church objected to having the people at large read 
the Bible, the early translators were cruelly perse- 
cuted, and most of them died in prison or at the 
stake. From Wyckliffe in the 14th Century, who 
translated the Scriptures for the first time into the 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPIyFS BASED ON FACTS. 121 

English language, up to the publication of the Re- 
vised New Testament, which originated in 1870, 
there have been issued at various times a great 
number of different versions which differed from 
each other more or less to a considerable extent, so 
that when the latest version was decided upon to 
be published, it was stated by those in charge of 
the work: "That the variations already detected 
and noted as existing in various manuscripts, ver- 
sions and editions, amount to over 120,000!! (One 
hundred and twenty thousand!!)/' And it was in 
view of such facts as this one, that a prominent 
member of the Committee engaged in this work of 
this latest revision, exclaimed: ''Why should the 
mere mistakes of transcribers still be imposed upon 
unlearned readers as being the words of evangelists 
and apostles, or even the sayings of our Lord Him- 
self?!" 

What are His laws and what is our destiny? 

Having now examined in these preceding lines, 
— in our effort to arive at actual facts regarding 
religious matters, — what is claimed by some indi- 
viduals as the infallibility of the Bible, we realize 
the error of such sectarian demands, which expect 
intelligent men and women to base their hope on 
the future life on pretensions that are not in accord- 
ance with the facts in the case, such as we have 



122 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

above enumerated. If the subterfuge, that in mat- 
ters of belief it is not right to reason, holds good in 
one religion, then it holds good for all; and if 
ancient traditions, questionable reports, erroneous 
translations, hearsay, etc., etc., are to be the stand- 
ard to go by, then the most absurd notions of the 
hundred millions of believers of heathenism, have 
perhaps as much right for acceptance as have some 
of the stories in the Bible. Fortunately for our- 
selves as for others seeking the truth, we have a 
better foundation to stand on, which is indeed and 
in truth a blessed revelation, conducive not only to 
increased contentment and happiness in our present 
state, but providing in reality a prospect of the most 
hopeful anticipation regarding our destiny for the 
hereafter. As moderation is a valuable principle 
to observe at all times, so in speaking of the Bible, 
let us neither exaggerate nor underestimate its 
beauty and value. Let us admire all that is admir- 
able in this in many respects wonderful book, con- 
taining so much wisdom, so much that has been, 
is and will yet be of real value in the lives of many 
Christian people. At the same time do not let us 
fall into the error of making doubtful questions of 
sectarian belief and other unimportant features, 
that in reality have no bearing upon our final des- 
tiny, matters of seeming great weight. It is this 
mistake which has divided and subdivided the 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 123 

church into opposing sects, has destroyed many of 
the benefits she should exert; and contrary to 
Christ's divine principles and teachings it has 
caused strife and quarrels among individuals and 
war among nations. It has, as far as it could, 
stemmed the tide of progress and advancement, in- 
stead of leading humanity on to a more enlight- 
ened understanding of the laws and the will of God, 
and to a correspondingly higher degree of perfection 
and happiness. So theology must not be blind to 
the fact, that the world to-day calls for more pos- 
itive, better proofs than would satisfy the dark 
ages ! And it is a fact that the highest type of the- 
ology is the very one which encourages efforts on 
the part of man and science to supply this demand 
of the world, while that theology which tries to op- 
pose the dawn of still greater truths to come to 
the aid of humanity in its search after light and the 
revelation of God's laws and manifestations, is the 
very one that will first experience the fulfillment of 
this one of God's inflexible laws : "Failure to grow 
is the beginning of decay; those opposed to ad- 
vancing are the least fitted to survive." All puri- 
fication of religion has come through advancement, 
increased knowledge, science — and the religion 
which would not advance has been cast aside, has 
died a natural death. It satisfied — savages, and 
served its purpose with — barbarians, but the civil- 



124 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

ized man or woman will not and cannot be forced to 
worship the God of our heathen-forefathers, per- 
chance a cow or an elephant or other dumb animal, 
because it happens to be white or is declared by 
some pretentious but ignorant or dishonest priest 
to be holy and the Ruler of Heaven and Earth. Nor 
will enlightened people of our times find comfort, 
satisfaction and happiness in placing their hopes 
for the hereafter upon such wicked pretentions, 
foolishness and blasphemy, which are an insult to 
their intelligence. But the true God is at least 
being recognized by man. The true ministry of 
Nature is at last to be honored, and the voice of 
science speaks grander and more truthful than any 
prophet of old. In the beginning there was chaos 
and barbarism. Upon deeper thinkers dawned at 
times the knowledge of greater things, and the dis- 
covery of fundamental law in Nature has accom- 
plished true reformation. Through Coppernicus, 
Galileo, Kepler, Newton the first revelations re- 
garding the laws of the Universe were made known 
to man, and we saw T that God's laws are facts. So 
the pursuit of these laws became the passion of 
Science; and recent discoveries prove clearer and 
clearer that these natural laws of the Universe are 
indeed the very footprints of the Creator. And they 
exist for us, and are there eternal and unmistakable. 
We can thus at least see in part the Mighty Power 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 125 

that drew the whole; and humanity finding itself 
on the right track, presses on forward restlessly with 
the hopeful realization, that understanding the 
part, it will yet learn to understand the whole. Thus 
the question is now not so difficult to answer. "Is 
it probable that the Hand which created so wisely, 
so wonderfully, so sublime, which has ruled and is 
forever ruling in the most marvelous wisdom, gave 
up the work when but half finished ?" And we, who 
have learned to admire, to adore that divine power 
by the study of the smallest in creation, such as the 
seed, the egg, etc., etc., up to the greatest our faint 
vision can perceive, i. e., the worlds and the stars in 
the firmament — could we possibly have so little 
faith and confidence in this Great God and Maker 
of All, and be so blinded by conceit about our own 
ability of judging, as to claim: "That because we 
cannot comprehend what the future is to be, that 
there is to be no future? That God whose wisdom 
we have learned to realize as being grand and won- 
derful beyond our understanding, created and is 
still creating millions upon millions of human peo- 
ple with no other object than that they should die 
and end in dust?" — To such then there is still but 
the same answer of old : "The fool saith in his 
heart, There is no God.' " It is modesty, humility, 
gratefulnes and obedience that make children dear 
to the heart of the parent. Let us bear this in mind 



126 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

in our relation to the Heavenly Father. Let us 
therefore first of all be modest and humble in our 
judgment of God's degrees, remembering what 
fools children often make themselves in pretend- 
ing to know everything better than their parents. 
The prayers of some puffed-up, conceited ministers 
sound so much like demands and orders given to 
God Almighty, that it is no wonder many of them 
are not answered; these certainly do not show the 
spirit of humiliation, which should be the distin- 
guishing characteristic of the true Christian. Ben- 
jamin Franklin, referring to such persons, has this 
to say: 

"Immodest words admit but this defence, 
That want of modesty is want of sense." 

Secondly, let us be grateful and realize that all 
things we have, yes life itself, our own as that of 
those dear to us, are but gifts of the Creator which 
we can show nothing for to prove to the contrary; 
therefore let us be grateful for each and all of these 
manifold gifts, and not grumble because someone 
else may have more than we have, nor let us mourn 
everlastingly, but rather act in righteous and grate- 
ful conviction according to the words of truth: 
"The Lord has given it; the Lord has taken it; 
the name of the Lord be praised !" Let us not be 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON EACTS. 127 

like ungrateful children, who never show a loving, 
thankful spirit for what their parents do for them, 
but instead always grumble, find fault, and want 
more. And finally, in this spirit let us be obedient 
to the Heavenly Father's will, as truly as we know 
how. Let us remember that in His kindness and 
generosity he has ordained even this law, that if 
our suffering should become intense, it shall not 
harm us long, for either fainting, unconsciousness, 
will relieve temporarily, or death will come and end 
continued suffering and pain permanently. Do you 
realize how full of perpetual suffering, agony and 
torture for each living creature God could have 
created the world, while the truth is, that all living 
things cling to life, which proves better than words 
can tell, how in spite of all that may be said to 
the contrary, life must have many charms indeed 
for all creatures, since death is as a rule feared and 
dreaded greatly by people and animals of all kinds 
and description. 

But as the blind cannot imagine what joys those 
experience who can see, and as the deaf cannot 
imagine what joys those experience who can hear — 
so there may be joys awaiting us in the hereafter, 
which now we can have no conception of . Is it 
probable that the Almighty Creator of Heaven and 
Earth, who has provided so wonderfully for even 
the little life in the seed, the little life in the egg, 



128 SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 

would not have provided for the future of the fore- 
most of His creations, His creatures: Man? 

Even the preceding few thoughts must tend to 
answer this question in the negative. Moreover 
we must bear in mind, that even to us in our com- 
parative weakness of mind and vision, it would 
seem an unfinished work for all human life and 
effort to end in the dust, in the grave. Can we 
intelligibly imagine the Allwise Creator to have 
shown less foresight than we poor mortals would 
show ourselves? Throughout the ages there seems 
to have been evident a dream of the hereafter. And 
then as through increased knowledge the effort and 
hope of mankind to learn more of God became 
more and more encouraged, the continuous effort 
of mankind seems to have been to reach out for 
some end in the future: The Kingdom of God. 
And finally with the aid of science Man in his search 
after the Creator has actually at last come upon 
His footsteps. Trembling, awestruck, overcome by 
the greatness of the discovery, he hardly dares yet 
to realize that it could be possible. And at this 
very moment, when like a frightened, bewildered 
child that has lost its way, it presently dawns upon 
you and me upon our pligrimage through life, that 
at last we see the way to our long-sought home, 
which we have almost despaired of ever finding, 



SOUND RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES BASED ON FACTS. 129 

we now with the true joy of salvation hear the en- 
couraging words of Jesus Christ as he exclaims : 

"Fear not! your dream is a reality! 

You are the child of God! 
The Kingdom of God is within you I" 




CHAPTER V. 

Essentials For Happiness Regarding 
Social Life and the Home. 

Whose life is so barren of the gentler emotions 
that his heart would not respond to the tender 
words of the old song of the immortal John Howard 
Payne : 

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,. 
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. 
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, 
Which — seek through the world — is ne'er met 
with elsewhere. 

Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain; 
Oh ! give me my lowly thatched cottage again ! 
The birds singing gayly, that came at my call, 
Give me them ! — and the peace of mind dearer 
than all. 

Home, home, sweet, sweet home! 
There's no place like home!" 

130 



SOCIAL IvlFE AND THE HOME. 131 

There are unfortunately, no doubt, some homes 
in the world that do not recall recollections such 
as these lines refer to. Perhaps some do not de- 
serve even to be called "Homes" in that sense of 
the word, for surely the above old song refers to 
just one certain kind of home; it does not refer 
necessarily to the home of the rich, or the home of 
the poor, the home in the country or that in the 
city, etc., etc., but it refers to that home where one 
certain characteristic feature is the prevailing one, 
and that characteristic feature is : "Love"; and 
nothing will make up for it — no, nothing, no honors, 
no wisdom, no wealth, no glory, no— nothing. "It 
is love that makes the world go round," and it is: 
"Love that builds the 'Happy Home.' " And what- 
ever we may say in this connection in behalf 
of "The Happy Life," few places in this world are 
so apt to develop the latter as is the home, that 
home where all of its members have this certain feel- 
ing toward each other, which makes "Divided pleas- 
ure double the pleasure, divided sorrow half the sor- 
row." Where could we find more beautiful, prac- 
tical and truthful mention of what love is than in 
the book of books : the Bible ? "Love suffereth long 
and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not 
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself un- 
seemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked, 
thinketh not evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but 



132 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

rejoiceth in the truth." Again: "Though I speak 
with the tongues of men and of angels, and have 
not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tink- 
ling cymbal. And though I have the gift of proph- 
ecy, and understand all mysteries, and all know- 
ledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could 
remove mountains, and have not Love, I am noth- 
ing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed 
the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, 
and have not Love, it profiteth me nothing/' And 
elsewhere again we read : "Love never f aileth ; but 
whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether 
there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there 

be knowledge, it shall vanish away And 

now abideth faith, hope, Love, these three; but the 
greatest of these is Love." Peter says : "Above all 
things have fervent love among yourselves." John 
says : "God is Love/' And Paul makes this pro- 
found remark: "Love is the fulfilling of the law." 
This love being thus in reality the virtue and 
wisdom "that passeth all understanding," it there- 
fore is the foundation-stone not only of Christianity 
and the highest type of civilization, but of necessity 
moreover also the foundation-stone of true happi- 
ness in the Home as in society. In other words 
we must practice in our intercourse the doctrines 
of Christ's teachings : "Love thy neighbor as thy- 
self"; "Do unto others as you would have others 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 133 

do unto you/' L e., we must be toward each other 
considerate, kind, gentle : gentle-men and gentle 
women, in order to secure a solid foundation for 
that happiness in the home, in society, in the com- 
munity, in the nation, which, indeed, is "the sweetest 
thing in all the world." As the intelligent gentle- 
man differs from the barbarian brute, so does civ- 
ilized life differ from barbarism; we cannot act 
both parts at the same time without confusing our 
conditio^ our life, without causing ourselves and 
others more or less unhappiness accordingly and 
leading what is called a false life. What a weari- 
some job it must be for a person everlastingly trying 
to make people think his character and life are 
different than what they really are; judging from 
what Lincoln said about fooling people, the chances 
for permanent success in that direction are not great; 
and even if successful^ is the trouble caused and the 
constant anxiety about being found out worth all 
this worriment? And life drawing to its close, what 
a regret it must be to have lived a false life. 

The Savage Barbarian and the Civilized Christian. 

The relation between the barbarian and the civ- 
ilized man is perhaps somewhat similar to the 
relation between the wild animal and the domes- 
ticated one; the advantages for the latter for a 



134 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

happy existence are so much greater than the former, 
that the disadvantages are comparatively insignifi- 
cant, though undoubtedly the wild animal like the 
barbarian enjoys greater freedom than does the 
civilized man and the domesticated animal. The 
civilized man is free from the dangers that beset 
the barbarian, his life is more secure, his comforts 
are greater, he is not exposed to the vicissitudes 
of the elements as is the barbarian, he is not so liable 
to suffer and die from hunger, thirst, excessive heat, 
contagious diseases, etc., etc., as does man in bar- 
barian conditions — but his freedom, his independ- 
ence are probably not as great either, for he must 
obey laws and he must submit to the will of the 
majority. If he would enjoy the advantages of 
civilization and at the same time the freedom and 
independence of the barbarian, he becomes an out- 
law and an outcast; he cannot last, society perse- 
cutes him. He acts like some poorly trained 
domesticated animals do, like the unmanageable 
horse for instance, which would enjoy the advan- 
tages of the stable, the care it receives, the regular 
meals, etc., but when put into harness, it will kick 
and jump for its freedom, and wants to enjoy also 
the advantages of the wild animal. The difference 
between the action of the unmanageable horse and 
that of the shiftless individual lies merely in the 
system they pursue to attain their ends. The bar- 



social life; and the home. 135 

barian wearing the cloak of civilization is apt to 
resort to trickery, to deception; and the ingenuity 
some of that class often manifest, makes one regret 
all the more that their gifts were not trained to bet- 
ter advantages both for their happiness as for the 
good of the world at large; the records of many 
criminals give ample evidence of this condition. 
It is in reference to such that the well-known 
remark refers aptly too : "You can fool some of the 
people all the time, and you can fool all the people 
some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people 
all the time/' The poor misguided one in his 
viciousness — his lot is not apt to be a happy one ! 
As no one wants an unmanageable horse, so no one 
wants him. Everybody shuns him, he is of little 
use to himself and to others. The barbarian wear- 
ing the cloak of civilization is like the wolf in 
sheep's clothing, mentioned in the Bible. May God 
protect our home from such; may God protect 
society form its members being such ! For 
as one bad egg may spoil a whole pudding, so the 
evil-doings of such characters are causing no end of 
suffering in the world. The best place for these 
people is the prison. If at any time they manage 
to secure places of influence, and in proportion as 
they do, so misery is on the increase proportionately. 
Under such, if they are in places of authority, vir- 
tue is changed to vice, vice to virtue, justice to 



136 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

injustice, happiness to misery. To the misrule of 
such we owe strikes and other unlawful out- 
breaks; and social revolutions, wars and fights 
among individuals, among families, among commu- 
nities, among nations, are the result. And as war 
in every form represents all the characteristics op- 
posed to peace, love, happiness, namely hatred, mal- 
ice, revenge, cruelty, etc., so consequently misery, 
suffering, hell on earth, is the work of the evil-mind- 
ed, the glory of the leader of such, which is the evil 
spirit, the (d)evil personified. Under such misrule, 
the oppressed people are apt to turn back to barbar- 
ism, and conditions do not improve until truly 
civilized rulers are put in places of influence and 
authority. History gives ample evidence of such 
instances, of which the French Revolution is per- 
haps the best illustration. 

The Evolution of Discipline Conducive to Greater 
Happiness. 

In former days discipline was sought for mostly 
with the aid of the stick, i. e., by means of corporal 
punishment; it was resorted to in the intercourse 
between parents and children, between husband and 
wife, between employers and employees, between 
servant and master, and so on in all the walks of 
life. 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 13/ 

As civilization advanced, moral persuasion came 
to be looked upon as a more human and rational 
means of discipline, so words took the place of 
the stick, i. e. } realizing the truth of: "As a man 
thinketh in his mind, so is he/' those in authority — 
parents, teachers, ministers, judges, rulers, etc. — 
felt that a more successful way to change the wrong 
and therefore objectionable actions of a person, was 
brought about by changing his wrong ideas, by 
making him think right, and that consequently then 
his actions would be apt to be nearer right propor- 
tionately, than they would be by just beating his 
body. This surely was a great step in advance, both 
as regards education as well as civilization in gen- 
eral. However, as we have seen in the first two 
chapters, that the condition of the mind is in many 
instances totally dependent upon the condition 
of the body, — which latter cannot be improved by 
the stick or by mere talk, — the time seems to have 
arrived when, realizing this very evident fact, we 
will try more generally to improve the mental con- 
dition of a person by improving the physical 
condition of the same; and as the radical 
way /to improve the physical condition of a 
person is not accomplished by beating or by 
talk, but by proper treatment, it can readily be seen 
that the educator in order to be more truly success- 
ful, must in many cases look in another direction for 



138 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

aid to accomplish the desired results, and that 
is : to the physician. We all know that when we are 
suffering headaches or other physical discomforts 
or pain, we cannot be expected to do as successful 
work either physically or mentally as we can when 
we are enjoying good health. Many unkind, un- 
pleasant actions, such as irritability of temper and 
other evil results of physical troubles, can certainly 
be more succesfully removed by treatment bene- 
fiting such persons' physical condition, than by 
beating or by talking to them. If that were not 
true, we might as well try to cure rheumatism, indi- 
gestion, broken limbs, aches of all kinds or any 
other of the human ailments by beating or by talk- 
ing to a person, instead of seeking a competent 
physician's advice. (Look in chapters I. and II. for 
other reference regarding this subject). 

The Knowledge of Human Nature. 

Many arguments about human nature arise from 
the error of judging people all alike under the gen- 
eral term "Human Nature/' when the truth is that 
they differ from each other in character as much as 
they differ in appearance and physiognomies. There 
are the honest and the dishonest, the trustworthy 
and the villains, the kind-hearted and the cruel, the 
timid and the bold, etc., etc. Thus, for instance, 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 139 

the saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way," 
is an exaggerated statement, not altogether true, 
and applicable only in occasional instances. Some 
people are so much stronger physically and mentally 
than others, that though using all the will-power 
they have, the latter cannot accomplish as much as 
the former. To expect frorp. anyone a deed — great 
and difficult or vicious and criminal — simply be- 
cause some one else did it, is the height of folly; 
to expect such may be as cruel as it would be to blame 
the blind that they cannot see, and as offensive as 
it would be, for instance, to suspect the honest man 
of being a thief, simply because some people are 
known to have stolen things. Everybody's will- 
power has its limit somewhere; so as an extreme 
instance: with all the will-power they possess, who 
can thereby destroy the deadly effects of poisons 
they have swallowed, change the course of the 
ocean, bring the dead to life again, etc., etc. ? We 
are all subject to the fundamental law of Cause and 
Effect, no matter what will-power or moral persua- 
sion we may exert to the contrary; eat indigestible 
or an insufficient amount of food for a couple of 
weeks, and notice the change in your condition, in 
your actions — in spite of all will-power; go for 
that length of time without sufficient sleep or with- 
out outdoor exercise, and watch the result. Or if 
anyone require yet another dose to cure him of an 



140 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

exalted and exaggerated opinion regarding his will- 
power or the power of moral persuasion, let him 
take a large quantity of whiskey, and arrange with 
a friend possessing great power of persuasion that 
you two will, when that powerful poison begins to 
act, use your combined powers of will and of per- 
suasion to counteract it, and notice the result. Many 
a poor woman, who tried by those means time and 
again to reform a drunkard-husband, son or father, 
has discovered to her distress the uselessness of 
trying to accomplish beneficial results by such 
efforts and by such means ; so those unfortu- 
nate drunkards have often, too, found that out 
by sad experience themselves. As previously 
mentioned, the most radical relieve to change 
matters caused by physical disturbances is 
obtained by appropriate treatment under a com- 
petent physician's care. Under this head come 
numerous smaller troubles besides drunkenness, 
intemperance and vices of various kinds. And in 
view of the fact that in these and similar respects 
people are affected all alike, let us not judge others 
differently than we would judge ourselves. Thus 
Christ said: ''Judge not, so ye be not judged/' 
"Do unto others as you would have others do 
unto you/' and of the miscreants who were so 
blinded as not to see the wisdom and truth of 
his teachings, and consequently were unable to 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE) HOME. 141 

appreciate his friendship and love for them, at the 
very time they tortured and crucified him, he 
said : "Father forgive them for they know not what 
they do." Let us imitate the Master's example. 

Humanity Struggling Between Barbarism and the 
Millennium. 

Humanity now being somewhere on the road be- 
tween barbarism, ignorance, misery and hell at one 
end, — and enlightenment and, Christianity, happi- 
ness, heaven at the other end, — it is but natural that 
in our daily intercourse we still come occasionally 
upon remnants of barbarism, etc., while at other 
times we plainly notice the approach to the dawn 
of the millennium. Our lives are thus made happy 
to the extent as we are ourselves and as we come 
in contact with people nearing the latter condition, or 
vice versa, we are made more or less miserable, 
as we are and come in contact with people who are 
yet — so to speak — "behind the times " and still 
semi-barbarous or worse, though cloaked perhaps 
with pretensions of civilized Christianity. Let us 
remember this fact in dealing with the inexperi- 
enced in life, and let us therefore exercise due 
patience particularly in the treatment of the young, 
of the children. 



142 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

Children are Little Savages. 

It has often been noticed how inconsiderate, wild 
and cruel young children are as a rule, and it has 
now become better understood, that as they would 
remain ignorant like barbarians in other things 
without education, so before having also received the 
proper training in proper conduct, they are in reality 
little savages too as regards their daily actions in 
life. Thus the characteristic traits of young chil- 
dren are apt not to be very different than those of 
animals, though dormant in them are already the 
inherited nobler instincts of their civilized parents; 
therefore under proper guidance they soon emerge 
from the low standard of the animal to that of man- 
ifestations of loving virtues : affection, grateful- 
ness, etc. When we take into consideration that 
the moral standard of a child of necessity cannot for 
the reasons above indicated, be of as high an order 
as that of educated mature persons, and further, 
when we bear in mind that few of the latter would 
work if no remuneration or reward of any kind 
were given them in return, — the better we realize 
how unreasonable it often is to expect children to 
perform the drudgery of their daily work with nei- 
ther remuneration for good work to encourage 
them, nor with threat or punishment for neglect, to 
keep them straight. A little reward often means 



SOCIAL UFE AND THE HOME. 143 

so much to the little children, and is such a help in 
sucessfully educating them. Parents and teachers, 
take this hint for your own good as for the happiness 
of those in your care. As in all things, so above 
all in education, try to be reasonable, i. e., act ac- 
cording to reason and in a lovable spirit. 

The Pretended Nobility in Animals not Based on 

Fact. 

Mention has sometimes been made of the noble 
traits in animals, which however in reality are 
mostly visionary; the fact is that the animal which 
is the least brutal, is the one that has lived closest 
to man, and has become domesticated ; it has been 
taught and has improved by such contact with the 
human family, as has for instance the dog, the horse, 
etc. There are certain kind-hearted people, who 
have perhaps been disappointed in their experiences 
with unkind persons, and judging the whole human 
race by these few, they have sought in preference 
the companionship of pet-animals; let them devote 
as much care and kindness to some deserving one 
of the human family, and in the hour of need such 
will in return do more for them, than a brute animal 
c uld and would/which latter acts generally fron 
one of these two motives : selfishness and greed, 
and is devoid of higher instincts. Yet let those who 



144 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

do keep animals in their homes, whether as pets or 
for useful purposes, remember the admonition: "A 
righteous man regardeth the life of his beast." A 
human being who acts like a brute toward a 
dumb animal, should be taught a lesson the 
same as one who acts in that capacity 
toward a human being, such as the brutal 
parent toward the helpless child, the brutal 
child toward the helpless parent, the brutal em- 
ployer toward the helpless employee, the brutal em- 
ployee toward the helpless employer, etc. Thank 
God, we have laws to regulate the conduct of such 
people ! Let us improve these laws whenever neces- 
sary, and let us enforce them rigidly. Neglect to 
bring the guilty to his deserved punishment is as 
great a wrong as to encourage him in his vicious- 
ness ! Stop the coward and don't act the part your- 
self! Cruelty and brutality are not conducive to 
happiness. Teach the sinner, and try to lead him to 
better things. 

Generosity is the Characteristic of the Nobleminded; 
Meanness that of the Coward. 

If the Bible says : "Behold, how good and how 
pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in 
unity," it also speaks of this : "Thou shalt rise up 
before a gray head and honor the face of the old 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 145 

man, and fear thy God/' Kindness and respect 
bestowed by grown-up children upon their aged 
parents is thus indeed in more than one respect like 
"storing up treasures in heaven." There is for 
instance no better example parents can set to their 
children than by the treatment and care they give 
to their own parents in old age. They are brutal 
indeed and a thorn in the eyes of decent people, who 
neglect to do all they can to make the declining 
years of their aged parents in their feebleness, as 
happy as they can. 

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." 

Somebody has said: "Where one man's liberty 
begins, is where another man's liberty ends," in 
other words, "taking liberties" is the cause of 
trouble and unhappiness. Everybody loves his little 
liberty nearly as much as his life. Try to take it 
away from people, and you are undertaking a big 
job, and a mighty ungrateful task at that, for which 
attempt you will earn the hatred of those you are 
trying to rob. As this little liberty is almost as dear 
to them as life itself, therefore in proportion as a 
person succeeds in taking it from people, accord- 
ingly in that proportion is that person somewhat 
like one who takes life, — a murderer, — and he 
is apt to bring upon himself a proportionate pun- 



146 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 



ishment. Let the parent remember this in dealing 
with the child, and vice versa; let the husband 
remember it in the treatment of his wife, and vice 
versa; let the employer remember it, likewise the 
employee, and the master, the servant, the teacher, 
the pupil, etc., etc. "Live and let live" is a prin- 
ciple more conducive to happiness than the practise 
of meanness, greediness, high temper, self-indul- 
gence, etc. 

Extracts from an Important Address of President 
Roosevelt, Referring to Family-Life. 

"In our modern industrial civilization/' said Mr. 
Roosevelt, "there are many and grave dangers to 
counterbalance the splendors and the triumphs. 
It is not a good thing to see cities grow at dispro- 
portionate speed relatively to the country; for the 
small land owners, the men who own their little 
homes, and, therefore, to a very large extent the 
men who till farms, the men of the soil, have hith- 
erto made the foundation of lasting national life in 
every State, and if the foundation becomes either 
too weak or too narrow, the superstructure, no 
matter how attractive, is in evident danger of falling. 

"But far more important than the question of the 
occupation of our citizens is the question of how 
their family-life is conducted. No matter what that 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 147 

occupation may be, as long as there is a real home 
and as long as those who make up that home do 
their duty to one another, to their neighbors and the 
State, it is of minor consequence whether the man's 
trade is plied in the country or in the city, whether 
it calls for the work of the hand or the head. 

"But the nation is in a bad way if there is no 
real home, if the family is not of the right kind ; if 
the man is not a good husband and father, if he 
is brutal or cowardly or selfish, if the woman has 
lost her sense of duty, if she is sunk in vapid self- 
indulgence or has let her nature be twisted so that 
she prefers a sterile pseudo-intellectuality to that 
great and beautiful development of character, which 
comes only to those whose lives know the fullness 
of duty done, of effort made and self-sacrifice 
undergone. 

"Just as the happiest and most honorable and 
most useful task that can be set any man is to earn 
enough for the support of his wife and family, for 
the bringing up and starting in life of his children, 
so the most important, the most honorable and de- 
sirable task which can be set any woman, is to be 
a good and wise mother in a home marked by self- 
respeCt and mutual forbearance, by willingness to 
perform duty, and by refusal to sink into self- 
indulgence or avoid that which entails effort and 
self-sacrifice. No mother has an easy time, and 



148 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

most mothers have very hard times, and yet what 
true mother would barter her experience of joy and 
sorrow in exchange for a life of cold selfishness, 
which insists upon perpetual amusement and the 
avoidance of care. 

"Into the woman's keeping is committed the des- 
tiny of the generations to come after us. Teach 
boys and girls alike that they are not to look for- 
ward to lives spent in avoiding difficulties. Teach 
them that work, for themselves and for others, is 
not a curse, but a blessing; seek to make them happy, 
to make them enjoy life, but seek also to make them 
face life with the steadfast resolution to wrest suc- 
cess from labor and adversity, and to do their whole 
duty before God and to man. Surely she who can 
thus train her sons and her daughters is thrice for- 
tunate among women. 

"To sum up, then, the whole matter is simple 
enough. If either a race or an individual prefers 
the pleasure of mere effortless ease, of self-indul- 
gence, to the infinitely deeper, the infinitely higher 
pleasures that come to those who know the toil of 
weariness, but also the joy of hard duty well done, 
why, that race or that individual must inevitably in 
the end pay the penalty of leading a life both vapid 
and ignoble. No man or woman really worthy of 
the name can care for the life spent solely or chiefly 
in the avoidance of risk and trouble and labor. Save 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 149 

in exceptional cases the prizes worth having must 
be paid for, and the life worth living must be a life 
of work for a worthy end, and ordinarily of work 
more for others than for one's self." 

'Love' is the Keynote to Happiness in the Home 
and in Social Intercourse. 

Whether we refer to filial love, to paternal love, 
to maternal love, to sexual love, to love between 
husband -and wife, to love between brothers and 
sisters, between friends and neighbors, etc., etc., this 
is certain, that true love depends first of all upon 
these two essentials: sympathy and esteem (admi- 
ration). No matter how much our sympathies may 
be aroused, we can feel no genuine love for the one 
whom we cannot esteem; and vice versa: love is 
impossible, no matter how much we may esteem 
(admire), if there is no bond of sympathy existing. 
Emotions which do not fill these two above-named 
requisites: sympathy and esteem (admiration), 
though they may resemble love, are not apt to be 
lasting. As moderation is conducive to happiness 
at all times, so it is in regard to our affections. 
Temperance in conversation, in friendship, in lov- 
ing, is as desirable as excess is objectionable. There 
is a wise suggestion in the little poem : "Love me 
little, love me long, is the burden of my song ; Love 



150 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

that burns too hot and strong, tmrneth soon to 
waste." Our esteem for a person is apt to diminish 
by that person's tendency to excess; therefore 
excessive demonstration in love may become pos- 
itively repugnant, as love can only be permanent 
so long as esteem remains. Admiration is a feeling 
akin to, but stronger than, esteem. While it has 
been said that "Love is blind," Walter Pulitzer 
cleverly remarks: "If love be blind, how is it pray 
— that love will always find a way?" Yet admira- 
tion for instance may be so intense as to be blinding. 
So the admiration for the physical strength and 
powerful form of a brute may be so intense, that 
you discover too late the character of your object 
of affection, not perhaps until in return for your 
loving kindness it strikes you the death-blow. Alas, 
the fatal mistake! And there are other numerous 
such fatal mistakes committed in affairs of the 
heart, causing unhappiness, and they are all 
mostly arising from ignorance of the laws 
of love and happiness. While the law of 
love is one of the Creator's most powerful 
laws, He also gave us intelligence to use as a 
guide. What love or emotion in the world is more 
powerful, more sublime, more ready for self-sacri- 
fice than the mother's love for her offspring, unless 
it be paternal love, the filial love, the sexual love? 
These are God's laws, which means that obedience 



social life; and the home. 151 

to them brings happiness, and disobedience brings 
misery ; and though the desire for sexual intercourse 
is strong among people as among animals, yet it 
is only a means to the end, i. e. } its sole and crowning 
mission is the production of offspring, the propaga- 
tion of the species ; any desire for sexual intercourse 
without that object in view is a transgression of 
one of God^s fundamental laws of creation, and the 
transgressor's punishment is as certain as the laws 
of Nature are infallible. "All the world loves a 
lover," and all the world despises the degenerate 
in his folly and sin, sacrificing his and other people's 
happiness for a few moments of self-indulgence. 

Happy and Unhappy Marriages; Cause and Effect. 

Marriage has been called a partnership ; it is more 
than that, as no marriage can be truly successful 
in securing happiness unless its foundation is: 
"Love in its purest form." This is only one requi- 
site, though doubtless the most important; besides 
this, there must be existing all the other requisites 
for a successful partnership, especially such prin- 
ciples, as : that honesty is the best policy, that one 
partner must in character, in wealth, in usefulness, 
etc,, offer as much as the other, etc., etc.; a one- 
sided arrangement is bound to cause discontent and 
dissatisfaction sooner or later. If these facts were 



152 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

better understood by persons entering into marriage, 
we would have less unhappy marriages, less di- 
vorces, less of all that heart-breaking misery caused 
by unhappiness in married life. Three of the main 
reasons causing these latter conditions are: First, 
that young people are often more anxious just to 
secure a husband or a wife, and so devote more 
thought "just to make a catch," than they are about 
the question if such a catch is apt to secure them 
a desirable life-partner with the prospect of their 
being apt to live together happily all these years to 
come "till death doth part them;" and second, that 
the question as to what the other party — has, is fool- 
ishly considered frequently of greater importance 
than what he or she — is. Third, it is a duty on the 
part of parents to give their sons, especially their 
daughters, all possible opportunity for becoming 
acquainted with those of the other sex ; it is a species 
of cruelty to force young people for lack of oppor- 
tunity in selecting a suitable life-partner, to either 
of these two evils: "single blessedness" or an un- 
happy marriage ; for surely there is no other choice 
left to them. Many people being thus fairly "forced" 
into unhappy marriages, this indicates the third 
cause for the frequent divorces of our time. If we 
would change an evil radically, we must go to the 
root of it; remove the cause and you remove the 
effect ; beating around the bush does little good. A 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 153 

more general avoidance of above-mentioned causes 
of unhappy marriages will consequently be more 
apt to prevent disappointments and unhappiness 
from that source than all the talk about divorce- 
Jaws. Louis Lombard says: '" Whether you get 
married or remain single, you are sure to— repent/' 
(At 'times, I presume). 

Someone Has Said: u The Price of Wheat Controls 
the Marriage-Market/' 

One of the saddest misfortunes to a nation arises 
if the average workingman's wages are insufficient 
to enable him'properly to provide for a family, over- 
burdening him with excessive care and worriment 
in his effort to discharge such duties and responsi- 
bilities like" a man; much of the misery in this world 
may be traced to this ; something must be radically 
wrong- somewhere/ when the birth of a child in a 
family is not looked upon any more as a blessing, 
as a gift from God, and when young boys and young 
girls are sent out into the street to earn their own liv- 
ing, - etc. etc. Referring to the lately developed tend- 
ency to try to educate girls with a view to push them 
into position's hitherto only occupied by men (which 
plan would of necessity more or less unfit them for 
other perhaps more important duties), a well-known 
lecturer recently expressed her opinion on this 



154 ESSENTIALS EOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

subject as follows: "The hand that rules the cook- 
ing-spoon is the hand that rules the world, for the 
hand of the cook holds the key to the health of the 
future home-makers and lawmakers of our land. 
Our great leaders in statesmanship, morals and in- 
dustry owe far more of their success to proper 
nourishment during their youth, than they do to 
their college-studies. A sound mind is impossible 
in an unsound body. A practical knowledge of ap- 
plied chemistry in the kitchen will ultimately prove 
far more enlightening to the nation than all the 
theoretical and polite sciences of girls' colleges. 
Good cooking brings contentment into the home," 
she declared, "but pleasant conversation will bring 
happiness. " 

The Story of the Bird in the Gilded Cage. 

The happy bird in nature and freedom would be 
foolish to long for life in the gilded cage, because 
the latter looks so pretty. "Not all is gold that 
glitters ;" so vice even in its most beautiful garment 
is but hell and misery in truth and reality; so ap- 
pearances are often deceptive in other respects ; so 
gorgeously attired persons frequently for that very 
reason do not have as good a time as those dressed 
plainly, etc., etc. This latter fact is as true with 
mature people in social affairs as it is with children, 



SOCIAL UFE AND THE HOMK. 155 

who as a rule are happiest when allowed to romp 
about unhampered by ribbons, laces, silks and other 
fine clothes, which latter may look pretty enough, 
but are a nuisance to the children as regards hap- 
piness and freedom in their play and frolic. So the 
large cities sometimes appear like golden cages com- 
pared with country-life, and so the life of certain 
sets in society sometimes has similar attractions to 
those who can only judge it from the outside, i. e., 
from appearances. Perhaps the bird in the cage 
enjoys dainties which the bird in nature seldom if 
ever manages to pick up, but oh ! how dearly it has 
to pay for them ! And on the contrary how many 
things the bird in nature enjoys and has good rea- 
sons to be thankful for, which the other is deprived 
of and can never have ! So people sometimes envy, 
because they know no better or do not realize how 
much they have to be thankful for. Such persons 
make themselves and their surroundings miserable 
by ever complaining of what perchance they once 
had and lost (such as friends, relatives, wealth, 
etc.), or by craving evermore for things which 
others enjoy. How happy instead they might be, 
and can make themselves and their surroundings, 
if they will think more about the many privileges 
and gifts they do enjoy, which perchance others may 
never have, and consequently realizing more truly 
how much they have to be thankful for, such as: 



156 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

eyesight, hearing and others of the many physical 
and mental benefits, for the lack of which lots of 
people are suffering a whole life-time. The writer 
once knew a darky, ill-fed and only half-clothed, 
who used to laugh and turn handsprings in the sun 
the live-long day. "What are you so happy about, 
Jim?" I asked. For a moment he became thought- 
ful and then burst out into a loud guffaw: 'Tse 
glad — 'cause I'se alive." Happy Jim, his was life 
indeed. "As a man thinketh in his mind, so is he." — 
As the mind cannot dwell on losses or other mis- 
fortunes when actively engaged in some earnest oc- 
cupation, the latter is one of the most radical cures 
for melancholy or the blues of any and all kinds ; 
it is doubtful if a better remedy can be prescribed 
in such cases. 

Excessive Ambition a Hindrance to Happiness. 

Immoderately ambitious people usually fail in 
attaining happiness, because they are apt to be 
filled with envy and greed, which latter are spirits 
antagonistic to happiness. We often meet such 
dissatisfied individuals in social life; they have 
wrong ideas of life, wrong conceptions of happiness, 
and they can consequently never secure the highest 
enjoyment possible, until they change their views, 
in this respect. A Happy Society must have at its 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 157 

basis the principles of Christian virtue. Con- 
sequently true enjoyment in social life arises from 
the principle of people enjoying each other's com- 
pany for what they — are, and not as is the case in 
false, uncongenial social life where people pretend 
to enjoy each other's company for what they — have. 
The charm of social life is largely lost through the 
effort of making "a big show/' a vulgar display of 
what people — have; a clever, successful hostess will 
not bore people in such a manner, and instead is 
providing for them a good, jolly, happy time. The 
latter is not so much secured by the amount of 
money that is spent, as by the spirit which is pre- 
dominating. The hostess' success depends upon this 
latter condition. We have seen people at big over- 
loaded dinner-parties and overdressed dull recep- 
tions bored to misery, while having on other oc- 
casions the time of their lives though provided 
with nothing but a plain picnic-fare and dressed 
plainly, but where the spirit of gaiety, good will and 
general jollification made everybody happy. In that 
respect Society might occasionally profit from the 
text "And a little child shall lead them," so that the 
wearisome, monotonous path of some of the so- 
called social functions may change to a more truly 
happy enjoyment of things social. The nearer we 
can in that respect be like "big children/' the 
'bigger' will be our happiness. For those people 



158 ESSKNTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

who find it difficult to get away from their overdose 
of self-conceit and the consequent fool-notion, that 
they must sacrifice their own and other people's 
happiness for a continual monotonous pretension of 
false dignity and dull wearisome haughtiness, it 
might be well to study up a little on the late Pres- 
ident Lincoln's favorite poem : "Oh, why should the 
spirit of mortal be proud?" which is herewith pre- 
sented in full. 

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 

The leaves of the oak and the willow will fade, 
Be scattered around and together be laid; 
And the young and the old, and the low and the high 
Shall moulder to dust and together shall lie. 

The infant a mother attended and loved 
The mother that infant's affection who proved, 
The husband that mother and infant who blessed, 
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 

The maid, on whose cheek, on whose brow, in 

whose eye 
Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by; 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 159 

And the memory of those who loved her and praised, 
Are alike from the minds of the living erased. 

The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne, 
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn, 
The eye of the stage and the heart of the brave, 
Are hidden and lost in the depth of the grave. 

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, 
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats to the 

steep, 
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread, 
Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 

The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven, 
The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven, 
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, 
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. 

So the multitude goes, like the flower or the weed, 
That withers away to let others succeed; 
So the multitude comes, even those we behold, 
To repeat every tale that has often been told. 

For we are the same our fathers have been ; 
We see the same sights our fathers have seen — 
We drink the same stream and view the same sun — 
And run the same course our fathers have run. 



160 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

The thoughts we are thinking our fathers would 

think ; 
From the death we are shrinking our fathers would 

shrink ; 
To the life we are clinging they also would cling, 
But it speeds from us all, like a bird on the wing. 

They loved, but the story we cannot unfold ; 

They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is cold ; 

They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers will 

come; 
They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is 

dumb. 

They died, aye ! they died ; we things that are now, 
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage 
road. 

Yea! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
We mingle together in sunshine and rain; 
And the smiles and the tears, the song and the dirge, 
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 

Ti* the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath ; 
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud; 
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 



SOCIAL UFE AND THE HOME. 161 

A word about the so-called "Upstarts/' the 
"Nouveaux Riches/' 

People deprived of happiness because of their 
over-dose of self-conceit are really more to be pitied 
than condemned, as it is plainly shown in the 
second chapter of this book, that they are often 
acting as they do in consequence of suffering from 
a mental disease, which physicians in insane asy- 
lums are frequently required to attend to. For in 
aggravated cases such unfortunates often imagine 
themselves to be celebrated individuals of world- 
renown, such as famous rulers, poets, scientists, 
artists, etc. ; in some instances these people are 
known to have even thought themselves to be Jesus 
Christ or the Lord God Almighty. In milder form 
this mental disease shows itself at times on the 
slightest provocation, as when the victim wears 
some new clothes, has received some praise or favor- 
able mention, has seen his name printed in a news- 
paper, or in consequence of some other insignificant 
little matter. At once he will get "puffed up," get 
what is called "a swelled head" (quite an appro- 
priate name, as indicating the disease of the head) ; 
he will then be apt not to recognize friends on meet- 
ing them, will "cut" them, and assume haughty 
airs or manners which make him appear queer and 
ridiculous in the eyes of others, who are apt to 



162 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 

notice that there is something radically wrong in the 
fellow's upperstory. This disease is particularly 
apt to be found among those uneducated people, 
those persons of weak or untrained minds, who 
through some accident happen to have come into 
possession of wealth, titles, or other honors. They 
are known in society under such names as 
"upstarts/' the "nouveaux riches," which names 
indicate that queer and ridiculous actions may be 
expected of these unfortunates as a matter of course 
at any time. As a man drunk with liquor may be 
affected mentally and bodily, so he cannot walk the 
straight and narrow path successfully, so these "up- 
starts'' to some extent may also be said to be intox- 
icated, i. e., intoxicated with the notion of being 
wondrous personages, before whom everybody 
ought to bow down ; and as drunkards, so they are 
consequently rather disagreeable persons to meet 
in a social way. For our happiness as that of others, 
let us neither overestimate nor underestimate our 
value in life ; let us practice moderation in this as 
in other respects, i. e., let us remember the old 
principle: "Avoid Extremes/' which is one of 
Franklin's celebrated life rules, the latter being 
herewith given in full. 



SOCIAL LIFE AND THE HOME. 163 

The Table of Benjamin Franklin's Life-and-Home- 
Rules. 

The following are the twelve Life-and-Home- 
Rules, which Benj. Franklin in his Autobiography 
states have proven themselves of great value to 
him in his long, happy, useful and so successful 
life :— 

I. TEMPERANCE. Stop eating before you 
feel stuffed, stop drinking before you 
feel heated. 
II. SILENCE. Speak only in such a way, 
that your conversation may be of use to 
others or to yourself; avoid all idle 
talk. 

III. ORDER. Live so, that with you every- 

thing shall have its appointed place; 
each business or engagement its fixed 
time. 

IV. RESOLUTION. Be determined to do 

that, what you should do ; and do 'and 
finish without fault, what you have re- 
solved to do. 
V. ECONOMY. Do not make expenses ex- 
cept for the good of others and your 
own ; in other words "do not waste 
anything." 



164 ESSENTIALS FOR HAPPINESS REGARDING 



VI. LABOR. Lose no time. Always employ 
yourself at something useful ; cut short 
all occupation, that serves to no good. 
VII. SINCERITY. Avoid sneakish ways, so 
that your thoughts may be without blem- 
ish, and just; and when you speak, 
speak as you think. 
VIII. JUSTICE. Do harm to no one ; neither by 
injuring him, nor by neglecting to do 
him that good, which your duty obliges 
you. 

IX. MODERATION. Avoid extremes. Do 
not permit those feelings, which you im- 
agine received injuries deserve, to get 
the best of you. 
X. CLEANLINESS. Do not allow any un- 
cleanliness on yourself, on your cloth- 
ing, or in your home. 

XL CALMNESS. Do not trouble yourself 
about trifling matters or about common 
and unavoidable accidents. 
XII. CHASTITY AND HUMILITY. Imitate 
Christ and Socrates. 

The Author Bids the Reader: God-Speed. 

Having mentioned in these preceding five chap- 
ters, now drawing to a close, the main essentials 



SOCIAL LIFE} AND THE) HOMK. 165 

leading to the highest attainment of happiness pos- 
sible under all conditions and at all times, and hav- 
ing done so to the best of my ability as the result of 
an eventful life, extending over a large part of the 
entire civilized world,— I here bid you God-speed 
on your onward journey. At the same time I suggest 
that you would now begin to put into practice the 
suggestions herein made, and feeling hopeful and 
confident that they will prove of real and lasting 
benefit to many of my readers and followers, I quote 
of a well-known song the following stanza : "Fare- 
well, till we meet again," and I close with the 
words, as true to-day as in the days when the old 
Roman philosopher first exclaimed them: "Donee 
eris felix, multos numerabis amicos,'- which in 
the free English translation reads : "You will 
have friends in plenty, so long as you will live 
The Happy Life.' » 




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